The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word NODES
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
N
O
D
E
S
More clues leading to the result NODES
- Significant points made by e.g. Canterbury fellow on return journey
- Pressed, once set up, to expose such lumps
- Poem going in opposite directions making significant points
- Shows agreement about origin of embryonic swellings
- Signs of having elephantiasis initially -- Lumps
- Spots where lines connect Neruda’s original poems
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The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does NODES mean?
NODES noun- A knot, knob, protuberance or swelling.
- The point where the orbit of a planet, as viewed from the Sun, intersects the ecliptic. The ascending and descending nodes refer respectively to the points where the planet moves from South to North and N to S; their respective symbols are ☊ and ☋.
- A leaf node.
- A computer or other device attached to a network.
- The point at which the lines of a funicular machine meet from different angular directions; — called also knot.
- The point at which a curve crosses itself, being a double point of the curve. See crunode and acnode.
- A similar point on a surface, where there is more than one tangent-plane.
- A vertex or a leaf in a graph of a network, or other element in a data structure.
- A hard concretion or incrustation which forms upon bones attacked with rheumatism, gout, or syphilis; sometimes also, a swelling in the neighborhood of a joint.
- A point along a standing wave where the wave has minimal amplitude.
- The knot, intrigue, or plot of a dramatic work.
- A hole in the gnomon of a sundial, through which passes the ray of light which marks the hour of the day, the parallels of the Sun's declination, his place in the ecliptic, etc.
- The word of interest in a KWIC, surrounded by left and right cotexts.