Five letters. Have a go, then tell me (I am assuming you'll solve it) how to program a computer to generate such a clue.
The hard part with crosswords isn't so much the word/clue, it's getting all the crossed words to fit into the puzzle. You can have a full database of words and clues, then have the computer generate a crossword key using those words.
14 posted on 03/04/2016 8:23:12 PM PST by Svartalfiar
A full database?? Tell me what database includes, say, Clue: Mother of Pearl/Answer: Mrs. Bailey.
Your putative "full" database is, by definition, the total of human imagination vis-a-vis language, and, also by definition, cannot possibly include neologisms.