Welcome to our free cryptogram game! What's a cryptogram, you say? It's a special type of puzzle where a famous quote is encrypted with a scrambled alphabet cipher, where each letter has been replaced with a different letter. This is known as a substitution cipher (technical term: monoalphabetic substitution cipher). Your job is to figure out which letters have been substituted for each other and crack the code. If you're a casual player, try our casual play mode which gives you access to plenty of hints and help. Experienced cipher-crackers should try out the expert mode.
The cryptograms are organized by topic (see the list of topics on this page). We also have a couple of "editor's choice" collections, where we organized a series of quotes into a set of puzzles you can work your way through. Either way, bookmark this page and check back regularly since we add quotes on a regular basis and are editing several new collections.
When you figure out the cryptogram, we score your results and compare them with other players. Your points score is based on your solution time and how many hints are used. For casual players, don't be afraid to use your hints - we give you five free hints to start and you can use extra hints if you're stuck. Expert games offer the option of using NO Hints (hardcore play!) for a higher score. After you solve the puzzle, we compare your raw points with everyone else who solved the puzzle to get a ranking.
Simple letter substitution ciphers have been around for thousands of years. These were considered state of the art during the late Roman Empire, both the simple Caesar cipher (substitution cipher based on a consistent "shift" in the letters) to more advanced matrixs and letter swap routines. They have been used by military strategists, politicians, revolutionaries, and secret lovers. Today, they survive as a popular puzzle and brain teaser. The easy ones can be used as cryptograms for kids.
Professional level solving involves things such as frequency analysis. You look for the most common letters in the cipher and compare it with the letter frequency of the english language. You can also look for letter patterns within words and compare them across words; since the letter patterns need to be consistent across the puzzle, the same letter cannot fit in different patterns. Repeated letters are another weakness. This should be enough to break any simple substitution cipher.
More advanced forms of encrypted text will use multiple alphabets to resist cracking. A vigenere cipher is designed to rotate alphabets to resist breaking of the ciphertext. This is a far more effective form of encryption.
We've got a ton of free cryptogram puzzles and cryptography puzzles, both digital and printable. Want to sit and look at a puzzle on paper? No problem, check out our printable cryptograms. We have a print button on each of the puzzle. This is a great cryptogram example. There are also puzzle solving tools, including a cryptoquip solver.
We cater to puzzle enthusiasts, word puzzle winners, and word games wizards. We've got a ton of free cryptogram puzzles and cryptography puzzles, both digital and printable.Want to sit and look at a puzzle on paper? No problem, check out our printable cryptograms.We have a print button on each of the puzzle. This is a great cryptogram example.There are also puzzle solving tools, including a cryptoquip solver.
The key is... variety and clue. We aim to load this game up with interesting quotes, for both secret code and logic puzzles. We offer common words and strange trivia. An air of mystery as we fling carefully select quotation puzzles in your general direction. (we use data science to optimize our printable puzzles so they are challenging yet fun). We haven't written a puzzle book - yet... but a book may come from this...
