Before start of term, find only half of boring school soup

The answer to “Before start of term, find only half of boring school soup” in the The Telegraph Cryptic crossword is BORSCHT — a 7-letter word. It most recently appeared in the The Telegraph Cryptic crossword on September 3, 2026, a Thursday puzzle, at 24-Across. Below you'll find why that fill fits, every other answer we've recorded for this clue, and links into the puzzle it came from.

“Before start of term, find only half of boring school soup” answer

BORSCHT (7 letters)

Reveal the solution one letter at a time with the tiles above if you'd rather nudge yourself toward it than see the whole word at once. Just want it outright? The answer is BORSCHT.

What does BORSCHT mean?

Reading the plain dictionary sense of BORSCHT is often the fastest way to see why it answers this clue.

When else has “Before start of term, find only half of boring school soup” appeared?

The Telegraph Cryptic reuses clues across dates, sometimes with a different answer depending on the grid. Here's where this exact clue has shown up, and what the answer was each time — handy when you're checking whether today's fill is the only one.

September 3, 2026 (most recent) → BORSCHT. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

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