| CIRCUMSTANCE | Means a state of affairs (12) |
| BUSINESS | A group of ferrets; or, from the Old English for "anxiety", a word whose early sense was used to mean a state of being fully occupied, later commerce, industry or trade (8) |
| VESTEDINTEREST | Strong personal concern in a state of affairs (6,8) |
| SITUATION | A state of affairs (9) |
| DEADLOCK | What is a state of affairs in which progress is impossible |
| REALITYCHECK | Reminder of the true state of affairs (7,5) |
| DISADVANTAGE | Dead against new nurses beginning to vouch for an unfavourable state of affairs (12) |
| LIEOFTHELAND | State of affairs could be the topography of an area (3-2-3-4) |
| KETTLEOFFISH | State of affairs (6,2,4) |
| MAUREENJAMES | Role on "State of Affairs" |
| PRECIPICE | From "steep place, danger" and etymologically related to a term for rain, a word for a headlong fall originally, now a cliff, drop, rock face etc; or, a perilous state of affairs (9) |
| MAELSTROM | From Dutch for "grind stream" or "crushing current", a word, introduced into English by Edgar Allan Poe, for a powerful whirlpool, hence confusion, turmoil or a turbulent state of affairs (9) |
| PICKLE | Word, with its roots preserved in "brine", for a soused or steeped foodstuff such as Branston, chutney, fermented cabbage, kimchi, sauerkraut or a spiced gherkin; or, a messy muddle or sour state of a |
| CRIMEA | Deplorable state of affairs north of a peninsula (6) |
| IT | Pronoun / a term of reference to something indefinite but understood as the state of affairs |
| KETTLE | Vessel whose idiomatic holding of fish refers to a sorry state of affairs (6) |
| DEPOSITION | Evidence of French state of affairs |
| THESIZEOFIT | Assessment of the state of affairs |
| APRETTYPASS | A regrettable state of affairs |
| REVUE | Appraisal of the state of affairs (5) |
