Pigpen chart
Every letter, A to Z.
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
Where it comes from
Each letter is the shape of its pen in a tic-tac-toe grid or an X, with or without a dot. Freemasons used it in the 1700s, and it has been passed between school desks ever since because it looks like a real secret alphabet.
A message worth knowing: Meet at midnight. The kind of note pigpen was made for: short, private, and passed by hand.
Learn it by heart
This is the cipher desk from Covert Mail, our free app for learning codes. The app teaches Pigpen 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 coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play
More codes and ciphers: