Daily Cryptogram
Solve a Cryptogram Puzzle every day using the Daily Cryptogram. A cryptogram puzzle is also included on the daily puzzle page. Print a cryptogram, word sudoku, boggle, or words in a word puzzle and take the puzzle with you if you're offline or traveling.
What is a Cryptogram Puzzle?
Cryptograms are puzzles where the words or sentences have been encoded. A substitution method is commonly used, where each letter is replaced by a different letter or number. Your job is to crack the code and discover the original lettering to reveal the hidden message. The sentences might look like a jumbled mess at first, but there are steps to discovering the cipher.
How to solve a Cryptogram:
- Look for short words with repeating letters or familiar letter patterns. In English the most common repeated letters are ss, ee, tt, ff, ll, mm and oo. Look for occurrences of letter pairs within the puzzle. Using the length of the word and the letter pairs can help decipher words in full, getting you closer to the answer. E.g. JNBJ (that), UIU (eye). UMM (all), XBXHTQZXHX (everywhere).
- One-letter words: The shortest words in the English alphabet are “I” and “A” with “O” sometimes used like in “O’clock”.
- Two-letter words: the most commonly used two-letter words in the English language are of, to, in, it, is, be, as, at, so, we, he, by, or, on, do, if, me, my, up, an, go, no, us, and am.
- Three-letter words: the most commonly used three-letter words in the English language are and, the, are, for, not, but, had, has, was, all, any, one, man, out, you, his, her, and can.
- When you decode a letter, fill out all instances of that letter. For example, if you identify that a W in your puzzle is the letter A, fill out all of the W’s in your puzzle with the letter A.
- Apostrophes. Apostrophes are punctuation marks used to convey a possession or contraction. Looking for these punctuation marks and discovering their classification as a possessive or contraction in a word can help decipher letters and full words in a cryptogram. Some common contractions are:
aren't → are not
there's → there is; there has
can't → can not
they'd → they had; they would
couldn't → could not
they'll → they will; they shall
didn't → did not.
they're → they are
Have you tried the Crypto CrAcker?
The Crypto Cracker will decipher simple ciphers and cryptograms. Just type in a Cryptogram and click Solve. The Cryptogram Solver can make cryptograms too! To encrypt a puzzle, enter your word or sentence into the solver and click Encrypt.