Hard cryptogram
A hard cryptogram reveals fewer letters, so you deduce from doubles, common letters and short words. It still decodes exactly one way, printed on page two.
Harder grades reveal fewer starting letters. Every puzzle decodes one way.
Customise colours
Clean drops the title band and footer, leaving the grid.
Two pages: the enciphered quotation with its starting letters, and the decoded answer. Drawn from a curated, family-safe saying bank, proved to decode one way by the same engine as our KDP studio.
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Preview
The enciphered quotation to crack, and the decoded answer.
How to solve a cryptogram
A quotation has been enciphered: every letter is swapped for another, the same way throughout. Crack the substitution so the quote reads. A few letters are given to start, and the answer is at the back.
The method
- 1Fill in the given letters. Write each given letter into every cell with its cipher letter, and watch the short words start to form.
- 2Attack the short words. One-letter words are A or I; common three-letter words are THE and AND. Each placement unlocks more.
- 3Use letter frequency. The most common cipher letter is often E, T or A; doubled letters are usually LL, EE, SS or OO.
- 4Check the answer page. Every puzzle decodes exactly one way, and the full quote is printed at the back.
- The one rule
- Same cipher letter, same real letter throughout; no letter stands for itself.
- What the answer page shows
- The fully decoded quotation.
- How the grades differ
- Harder grades reveal fewer starting letters.
- Good for
- Solvers who like deduction, patterns and a good saying.
Making a whole cryptogram book?
This page makes one puzzle. To publish a book on Amazon KDP, the KDP cryptogram maker generates hundreds of graded puzzles at any trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and solutions PDF.
More printable cryptograms
Questions
- Are these hard cryptogram free to print?
- Yes. Generate the puzzle above and print it with its answer, at no cost and with no sign-up.
- Does every puzzle decode one way?
- Yes. Every cipher is built and checked so it round-trips to exactly one quotation. The answer is on the second page.
- Can I make a cryptogram book to sell on KDP?
- Yes. The free tool makes one puzzle. The KDP cryptogram maker generates hundreds of graded puzzles at any KDP trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and solutions PDF.