How does the cryptogram work?
A cryptogram is a sentence written in a simple code: each letter has been swapped for a different one, and the same swap is used all the way through. If K stands for E once, it stands for E everywhere. Spaces and punctuation are left as they are, so you can see where words begin and end.
Tap a code letter, then type or tap the letter you think it stands for; your guess fills in every copy. Using a letter you already placed elsewhere moves it. Hint fills one letter in for good, and Check marks the guesses that are wrong. The puzzle is solved the moment every letter is right.
How is your Cryptogram time calculated?
Your result is your time from Start to the moment the sentence is solved, with two counts beside it: how many hints you used and how many wrong letters Check marked. There is no rating, because no published average exists for puzzles built like these, and sentences vary in difficulty.
The game has 46 sentences, traditional proverbs and a few written for the site, each using between 12 and 26 different letters. The code is new every game, and no letter ever stands for itself, the usual rule for these puzzles.
How do you solve a cryptogram?
Start with the short words and the patterns, not the letters. A one-letter word is almost always A or I. A three-letter word that appears twice is a good bet for THE: 21 of the 46 sentences here contain it. Then let every letter you place help with the words around it.
- Count the code letters. In 32 of the 46 sentences here, the most common letter is E or T.
- Look at doubled letters. A doubled code letter here is most often EE, LL, OO, SS.
- Use word shapes. A word like XYZZYX has a pattern only a few real words fit.
- Guess, then check. A wrong guess costs nothing until you press Check.
Which letters are most common?
In the 46 sentences this game uses, the six most common letters are E, T, O, S, A, I. That pattern, with E far ahead, is why counting letters is the classic way in. Counts from a single short sentence are rougher, so treat them as hints, not rules.
| Letter | Share of all letters |
|---|---|
| E | 12.7% |
| T | 8.7% |
| O | 8.6% |
| S | 7.5% |
| A | 6.6% |
| I | 6.5% |
Counted from the game's own sentence list (1,354 letters in all).
Where do cryptograms come from?
Cryptographers call the letter swap a simple substitution cipher. Edgar Allan Poe made solving one the centre of “The Gold-Bug”, which won a $100 prize from Philadelphia's Dollar Newspaper and ran from June 1843: the hero cracks a pirate's message by counting which symbols appear most. Puzzle solvers still call this kind of cryptogram an “Aristocrat”, the name used by the American Cryptogram Association, formed on 1 September 1930.
There are 148,362,637,348,470,135,821,287,825 ways to swap 26 letters so that none stays in place, about 37% of all possible swaps, so a code can't be found by trying them. It falls to patterns instead. For another code to crack, try the Code Breaker; for words one letter apart, the Word Ladder.