The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word ENIGMATIC
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
E
N
I
G
M
A
T
I
C
More clues leading to the result ENIGMATIC
- Setting etc? Aiming for cryptic
- Mysterious Houdini finally caught in strange magic net
- Puzzling time in charge, unevenly managed
- Giant mice to be dealt with? That’s baffling!
- Imagine this crossword starts out as cryptic
- Mysterious giant mice in another dimension!
- Quote about American spirit on the rise is puzzling
- I get manic about puzzling!
- Could this disheartened fan create magnificent cryptic?
- “Unexpected item in bagging area” keeps good customers primarily puzzling
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "puzzling" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case puzzling = enigmatic.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 ENIGMATIC mean?
ENIGMATIC adjective- Pertaining to an enigma.
- Mysterious.
- Defying description.
- (variant) Enigmatical.