What is a cryptogram
by Hudu, Brillig, Sibyl, LeXman and Next Lingo
The cryptogram
The back page of the Enigma has 7 cryptograms, puzzles that consist mostly of nonsense words! The key concept is that each letter in the puzzle represents a different letter. For example, the message Meet me here at two o’clock, or else! might be encrypted as PXXF PX AXJX HF FIZ Z’DKZDU, ZJ XKOX!
You can count on consistency throughout each crypt (short for cryptogram). In the above example, once you know that X represents E, you know that X doesn’t represent any other letter, and no other letter represents E. Also, a letter cannot represent itself.
Punctuation and the original word divisions are retained.
Enigma cryptograms are arranged in order of difficulty, from easiest to hardest. However, the editor’s opinion of what is difficult may not match yours.
You’re probably ready to try the easiest ones at the top of the page, C‑1 and maybe C‑2. Stop reading this page; I’ll be here when you come back!
Sometimes we feel that one level of puzzle is not interesting enough! So for some crypts, the solution is itself a puzzle. In general, solvers should submit that puzzle’s solution as well. For example, the plaintext could be a flat, with the title providing the type and enumeration. These “cryptoflats” were introduced by Qoz.
Tags and Capitalization Markers
Unlike answers to flats (which are tagged if they don’t appear in online MW (our term for Merriam-Webster)), words in cryptograms are tagged only if they don’t appear in any of our official MW references.
Capitalized words are asterisked; thus, Lily Tomlin might be encrypted as *EGEC *YQNEGM. Words with all their letters capitalized are double-asterisked; Richard III might be encrypted as *WSOTUWV **SSS. Words that are capitalized only because of their use are tagged with carets: Uncle Remus might be encrypted as ^YDKIS *ASOYN. The Mill on the Floss might be encrypted as ^RYP ^AHZZ QG RYP *CZQXX. (Asterisks and carets do not apply to words that are capitalized only because they begin a sentence.)
Rules for cryptograms
Cryptograms in The Enigma must conform to certain rules, designed to ensure that they are fair to the solver:
- Each crypt must contain from 75 to 90 letters in all.
- A letter that is used only once (such as A, H, K, S, and W in the message “Meet me here at two o’clock or else!”) is called a singleton. You may have no more than six singletons in a crypt. It is best practice to have at most one singleton in a word, particularly an obscure word.
- Ideally, no more than four proper nouns should be used.
- All words must appear in one of our official references or be noted as “not MW”.
- “Reformed spellings” (from NI2) or other obscure variant spellings are not allowed, although common variants (e.g., gray/grey) are fine.
- The message must be a complete and coherent statement, grammatically stated (though perhaps telegraph-style) and correctly punctuated. Lists of words set off by commas (e.g., “Happy, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Doc”) are not acceptable.
- Each cryptogram must have a brief, appropriate title, relating to the crypt’s subject or theme, but not so directly as to give away the answer. If you don’t supply a suitable title, the editor or crypts editor will write one.
- Encoding one word as another (for example, ciphertext BERRIES or SETTLER for villain) is permitted, but the ciphertext should not itself be a clue—in other words, the puzzle should be just as hard or easy with ciphertext ABCCDBE.
Some additional guidelines for constructors
One or two non-MW words in a crypt are fine, especially if they’re well-known (such as topical references) or easily deduced from the rest of the message. Try to avoid singletons in non-MW words. Solvers who submit solution lists won’t be penalized for missing singletons in non-MW words if they’ve solved the rest of the cryptogram correctly.
A good general guideline is that at least 18 different letters must be used. This can be waived; we have had some carefully constructed crypts with just six or seven distinct letters.
Try for consistency and plausibility. Unless you serve the point of the message by doing so, don’t mix American and British spellings in the same sentence; don’t drop one archaic word into an otherwise modern-English crypt; don’t begin Medieval samurai inspects digital watch—unless, of course, the anachronisms are the point.
Try to make your message interesting or amusing. A crypt that’s funny, clever, punnish, or thought-provoking is more satisfying than a contrived string of words. Some telegraphese is acceptable in order to avoid short, common words like and, a, and the that can make a crypt too easy to be interesting. This clever crypt, constructed by Arachne, uses telegraphese typically: Girl drops from blue, wears ruby flats for trip down golden road toward leaf-hued city. Movie fans tickled pink. “Pattern words“ (words with repeated letters, like the u’s in usual) tend to make a cryptogram easier. Avoid them if you’re trying to make a harder crypt. The very hardest crypts use unusual or obscure words. A typical example (by Micropod): Hindu nastika thumps mridanga, gift from Bhutani. Kali objects, dispatches death-bent demon. Even this is not an extreme example: occasionally a message is so full of uncommon words that it’s just as unintelligible after solving as it was before! The more obscure the message, the more important it is to play fair with the solver. Be sure the message makes coherent sense. Here, for example, nastika (an atheist) and Kali (a god’s name) are both words used in Hinduism, and a mridanga is an Indian drum—all appropriate to a message about a Hindu and a Bhutani. Here, the only singletons are the L in Kali and the J in objects, well below the maximum of six. These things can help make even the hardest cryptograms more enjoyable and satisfying to solve. Don’t forget that the editor needs crypts of all difficulties: do not worry that a crypt is too easy or too hard to submit.
[This article originally appeared in the PDF of the Guide to the Enigma under the title “Cryptograms;” it was updated by Next Lingo in 2026]