Cryptogram
Letters: 0
- Category
- Brain
- Players
- 1
- Controls
- Tap
- Cipher
- Substitution
- Loads
- Instant
Controls
| Tap a coded letter | Select it. |
| Tap a real letter | Assign it. |
| Tap ✕ | Clear the assignment. |
Next up
| Tap a coded letter | Select it. |
| Tap a real letter | Assign it. |
| Tap ✕ | Clear the assignment. |
A cryptogram hides a saying behind a substitution cipher: every letter has been swapped for a different one, consistently throughout. Unlike a Caesar shift there is no single number to find, so you have to reconstruct the whole mapping from patterns in the text.
The way in is frequency and shape. E is by far the most common letter in English, single-letter words are almost always A or I, and a three-letter word appearing repeatedly is very likely THE. From those footholds the rest unravels surprisingly fast.
Find the most frequent symbol and try E. In ordinary English text E appears more often than any other letter by a wide margin, and getting it right unlocks a great deal.
Look for one-letter words. In English they are almost always A or I, which gives you two free assignments in most sayings.
Hunt for THE. A repeated three-letter word is very likely to be THE, and that single guess fixes three letters at once.
Use the word shapes. A word with a doubled letter narrows things considerably, since only certain letters commonly double in English.
Every letter moves independently rather than all shifting by the same amount, so there is no single number to find.
With the most frequent symbol, single-letter words, and any repeated three-letter word.
No, the mapping is one to one, so assigning a letter removes it from everywhere else.
Yes, they are common English proverbs, which helps once you have a few letters.
Nothing at all. The whole of Cryptogram is built into the page itself, which is why there is no loading bar and no waiting before you can play.