What pretender is expecting to do even as force is beginning to rise?

The answer to “What pretender is expecting to do even as force is beginning to rise?” in the The Times Cryptic crossword is REIGN — a 5-letter word. It most recently appeared in the The Times Cryptic crossword on September 4, 2026, a Friday puzzle, at 7-Down. 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.

“What pretender is expecting to do even as force is beginning to rise?” answer

REIGN (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 REIGN.

What does REIGN mean?

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

When else has “What pretender is expecting to do even as force is beginning to rise?” 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.

September 4, 2026 (most recent) → REIGN. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

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