Heartless twelve year cuts for respected authority

The answer to “Heartless twelve year cuts for respected authority” in the The Times Cryptic crossword is DOYEN — a 5-letter word. It most recently appeared in the The Times Cryptic crossword on August 21, 2026, a Friday puzzle, at 26-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.

“Heartless twelve year cuts for respected authority” answer

DOYEN (5 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 DOYEN.

What does DOYEN mean?

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

When else has “Heartless twelve year cuts for respected authority” appeared?

The Times 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.

August 21, 2026 (most recent) → DOYEN. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

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