How to Solve a Cryptogram
A cryptogram is a quote behind a letter-substitution cipher: every letter is swapped for another, and the swap never changes. That consistency is the flaw. The message's skeleton — word lengths, repeats, doubles, apostrophes — survives the encryption intact. Here are the Czar's seven tactics for reading that skeleton.
1. Break the short words first
One-letter words are almost always A or I. The most common three-letter word in English is THE by a wide margin. Solve a short word and every letter it contains is confirmed everywhere else in the puzzle at once.
2. Count the letters
Tally which cipher letter appears most often. In English, E is the most common letter, followed by T, A, O, I and N. On a quote of any real length the top cipher letter is very likely E or T.
3. Hunt the doubles
Repeated adjacent letters narrow things down fast. The most common English doubles are LL, EE, SS, OO and TT. A short word with a double letter is often ALL, TOO, SEE, OFF or WELL.
4. Work the apostrophes
An apostrophe near the end of a word signals a contraction or possessive. The letter after it is almost always T, S, RE, LL or VE, which hands you several high-frequency letters at once.
5. Read the pattern words
Some words give themselves away by shape alone. THAT has the pattern 1-2-3-1. PEOPLE, WHICH and THERE all have distinctive repeat signatures. Spot one and several letters fall at once.
6. Mine the author line
Most cryptograms credit a famous author. Surnames are guessable once two or three letters land, and every letter you confirm in the name feeds straight back into the quote.
7. Confirm, never assume
A guessed letter that produces an impossible word elsewhere is a wrong guess. Test every guess against the whole ciphertext before you commit to it. This is the discipline that separates a fast solve from a stalled one.
The frequency table
Pin this up. It is the single most useful object in code-breaking, and it is why the Czar reveals free letters in casual mode: he is simply doing this count for you.
| Rank | Letter | Share of English text | Where it hides |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E | 12.7% | Word endings; doubled in SEE, BEEN, THREE |
| 2 | T | 9.1% | Starts THE, THAT, THIS, TO |
| 3 | A | 8.2% | Stands alone as a word |
| 4 | O | 7.5% | Doubled in TOO, GOOD, LOOK |
| 5 | I | 7.0% | Stands alone as a word |
| 6 | N | 6.7% | Ends -ING, -ION, -ENT |
| 7 | S | 6.3% | Plurals; after an apostrophe |
| 8 | H | 6.1% | Almost always after T |
| 9 | R | 6.0% | -ER, -RE endings |
A worked example
The Czar will now humiliate a cipher in public. Suppose the ciphertext opens:
GVS DXKN GVFG …
Step one. Two three-letter words, and the first and third both read GVS / GVFG — note that GVFG has the pattern 1-2-3-1: first and last letters identical. That is the signature of THAT.
Step two. If GVFG is THAT, then G=T, V=H, F=A. Substitute back into the first word: GVS becomes T-H-?, and the only sensible three-letter word starting T-H is THE. So S=E.
Step three. Four letters confirmed from two words — T, H, A, E — which are four of the six most common letters in English. The rest of the quote is now riddled with holes you can read straight through. This is what the Czar means by a fingerprint: you never guessed the message, you reconstructed it.
Questions for the Czar
What is the fastest way to solve a cryptogram?
Solve the short words first. One-letter words are A or I, and the most common three-letter word is THE. Because a substitution cipher is consistent, cracking one short word confirms those letters everywhere else in the puzzle simultaneously, which usually cascades into several more words.
What are the most common letters in English?
In order: E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R. E is the clear leader at roughly 12 percent of all letters. Count which cipher letter appears most often in the puzzle and it is very probably E or T.
What is the most common three-letter word?
THE, by a very large margin. If a three-letter word appears more than once in a cryptogram, try THE first. It is the single highest-value guess in the game because it confirms T, H and E in one stroke.
Are cryptograms and cryptoquotes the same thing?
Effectively yes. A cryptoquote is a cryptogram whose plaintext is a famous quotation, and a cryptoquip is the same puzzle with a pun as the answer. All three use the same letter-substitution cipher, so the same solving tactics work on all of them.
How long should a cryptogram take?
An easy one takes an experienced solver two to five minutes. A hard one with unusual vocabulary or proper nouns can take fifteen or more. If you are new, expect it to be slow at first and to speed up sharply once frequency counting becomes automatic.