The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 10 letter word ARITHMETIC
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
A
R
I
T
H
M
E
T
I
C
More clues leading to the result ARITHMETIC
- One can count on learning this at school
- Calculating, cold: possibly I’m the replacement for Conservatives’ leader
- Crime that I arranged, being calculating
- School working at hit crime novel
- Reckoning that I must be involved with crime
- Tai chi term for development work on figures
- Crime that somehow involves one as subject
- Working out numbers for crime, hit at corruption
- I am basically taught to follow university script?
- Crime that strangely must keep one school subject
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "work on figures" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case work on figures = arithmetic.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 ARITHMETIC mean?
ARITHMETIC noun- The mathematics of numbers (integers, rational numbers, real numbers, or complex numbers) under the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
- Of, relating to, or using arithmetic; arithmetical.
- Of a progression, mean, etc, computed solely using addition.