Type over any letter on the board. Backspace takes a guess back. A box turns red when two cipher letters have the same guess.
Letter counts
The puzzle's letters, commonest first, beside the English letter of the same rank.
Words that fit
Common words with the same pattern of repeated letters that agree with your guesses. Tap one to try it.
Where to start
Every letter in a cryptogram stands for one other letter, the same all the way through. So one right guess shows up everywhere that letter does, and one wrong guess turns words into nonsense, which is how you catch it.
Look for one-letter words first: they are A or I. Then a short word that repeats: THE, AND, TO and OF are the commonest in English. A word with an apostrophe usually ends in S, T, LL, RE or VE. The letter counts help most on a long puzzle, where the commonest cipher letter is very likely E.
A Caesar or Atbash message is a cryptogram too, only an easy one, and the cipher identifier reads those for you. So does the substitution cipher page, once you know the whole alphabet.
Learn to crack them yourself
Every code here is one that Covert Mail, our free app, teaches. It takes you through each one a few characters at a time, plans practice around the ones you miss, and keeps an archive of famous real messages to unlock. It is free on the App Store.
Download on the App Store▶ Coming soon to Google Play
Also for puzzles: the cipher identifier and the secret message reader. Every code, with its translator and chart:
Frequently asked questions
How do you solve a cryptogram?
Start with the short words and the common letters. A one-letter word is A or I. The commonest three-letter word in English is THE, so a three-letter word that comes up more than once is a good bet for it. The letter that appears most often is often E, T or A. Put a guess in, see what it does to the other words, and take it back when it makes nonsense.
What are the most common letters in English?
E, then T, A, O, I, N, S, H and R, the order printers called ETAOIN SHRDLU. In a long cryptogram the commonest cipher letter is very likely E. In a short one the order wanders, so treat it as a hint, not a rule.
What does a one-letter word stand for in a cryptogram?
Almost always A or I. If the same cipher letter shows up alone in two places, it is one of those two, and the rest of the sentence usually decides which.
Can a letter stand for itself in a cryptogram?
Not in the ones printed in newspapers and puzzle books, which follow the rule that no letter stands for itself. A cipher doesn't have to follow it, so a cryptogram from somewhere else might not.
Why is there no button that solves it for me?
A computer solves a cryptogram by trying keys by the million and scoring them against English. On a puzzle as short as a newspaper's it lands on a wrong answer often enough to be no help. The hints here are the steps a person takes, and you decide.
What is the difference between a cryptogram and a cryptoquote?
A cryptoquote is a cryptogram of a famous quotation, usually with the speaker's name in code too. They're solved the same way, and the name is often the easiest place to start.