The habits of highly intelligent people offer a clue as to how to do that.

I'll take my cue from you.

The girl, her eyes shining brightly from that single hint, makes her cute cat-motif automatic pencil run across her notebook.

He gave me a hint.

He took a slight hint as the start and found the correct answer.

The number of *****s in the hint has no relation to the number of characters in the word.