Each of the clues can be answered by words in alphabetical order. As is clued by the title and flavor text, these 27 words can be partitioned into nine sets of 3, where two of the words have a hidden word (across word boundaries) when placed together, and the third word is a defintion/synonym for the hidden word.
| Clue | Answer |
| An earlier version of something (8) | ANCESTOR |
| Form a plan to do something illegal (8) | CONSPIRE |
| Magazine often used for Pokémon news (8) | COROCORO |
| Its gin was invented in 1794 (6) | COTTON |
| What you could shout with four cards left in Uno (6) | CUATRO |
| Respectfully turn down an invitation (7) | DECLINE |
| Harry Potter composer (7) | DESPLATE |
| By law, it can never decrease (7) | ENTROPY |
| Class of colorless crystals consisting of Ca, K, or Na composing 41% of the continental crust (8) | FELDSPAR |
| A handy reference to calculate a value (7) | FORMULA |
| A wreath of leaves or flowers often seen on Christmas trees (7) | GARLAND |
| A catch-all place for assistance, particularly computer users in a company (8) | HELPDESK |
| Cross-dressing character in Shakespeare's Cymbeline (6) | IMOGEN |
| Language that supposedly has many words for snow (5) | INUIT |
| It might be a better average for a skewed data set (6) | MEDIAN |
| Animal that fails to sense evil in three ways (6) | MONKEY |
| Opioid blocking medicine used in overdose situations (8) | NALOXONE |
| Genus of two Detroit sports teams (8) | PANTHERA |
| Taxonomical alternative to division (6) | PHYLUM |
| What you buy from an insurance provider (6) | POLICY |
| Highbrow German automaker (7) | PORSCHE |
| A list of steps to be taken (7) | PROCESS |
| Type of snake or a language (6) | PYTHON |
| A treatment for a disease or injury (6) | REMEDY |
| A cold treat you might have at the beginning of the week (6) | SUNDAE |
| An abbreviation of a stock, or a thing that stands for something else (6) | SYMBOL |
| Guy who might doubt a lot? (6) | THOMAS |
| Hidden word | Definition |
| desPLAT FORMat | POLICY |
| cuATRO PHYlum | DECLINE |
| porSCHE MEdian | CONSPIRE |
| coroCORO NALoxone | GARLAND |
| sunDAE MONkey | PROCESS |
| thoMAS COTton | SYMBOL |
| helpdESK IMOgen | INUIT |
| panTHERA PYthon | REMEDY |
| feldsPAR ENTropy | ANCESTOR |
This gives nine total words (in no particular order): PLATFORM, ATROPHY, SCHEME, CORONAL, DAEMON, MASCOT, ESKIMO, THERAPY, PARENT. Repeating the above process gives three trios of words.
| Hidden word | Definition |
| platFORM ATtrophy | SCHEME |
| coRONAL Daemon | MASCOT |
| eskiMO THERapy | PARENT |
This gives three words: FORMAT, RONALD, and MOTHER. This acts as one last trio of words, solving to: forMAT RONald (MOTHER), and so the answer is MATRON.