Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies Cheat Sheet (2025)

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By: Denise Sutherland and Mark Koltko-Rivera and

Updated: 09-27-2021

From The Book: Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies

Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies

Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies Cheat Sheet (1)

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Cryptography offers you the chance to solve all kinds of puzzles. Use basic solving techniques to crack substitution ciphers, including the Freemason’s cipher. Encode your own messages, decode incoming communications, and have fun trying to figure out conspiracies, codes, and cryptograms!

Cryptography 101: Basic solving techniques for substitution ciphers

It doesn’t matter whether a cryptogram presents you with letters, numbers, arcane symbols, lines and dots, or weird alien squiggles — if you’re asked to replace each letter in the alphabet with another symbol, you’re dealing with a simple substitution cipher.

All substitution ciphers can be cracked by using the following tips:

  • Scan through the cipher, looking for single-letter words. They’re almost definitely A or I.

  • Count how many times each symbol appears in the puzzle. The most frequent symbol is probably E. It could also be T, A, or O, especially if the cryptogram is fairly short.

  • Pencil in your guesses over the ciphertext. Do typical word fragments start to reveal themselves? Be prepared to erase and change your guesses.

  • Look for apostrophes. They’re generally followed by S, T, D, M, LL, or RE.

  • Look for repeating letter patterns. They may be common letter groups, such as TH, SH, RE, CH, TR, ING, ION, and ENT.

  • Try to decipher two-, three-, and four-letter words.

    • Two-letter words almost always have one vowel and one consonant. The five most common two-letter words, in order of frequency, are OF, TO, IN, IS, and IT.

    • The most common three-letter words, in order of frequency, are THE, AND, FOR, WAS, and HIS.

    • The most common four-letter word is THAT. An encrypted word with the pattern 1 – – 1 is likely to be THAT. However, the pattern 1 – – 1 also represents 30 other words, so keep this in mind.

  • Scan for double letters. They’re most likely to be LL, followed in frequency by EE, SS, OO, and TT (and on to less commonly seen doubles).

Understanding the Freemason’s cipher

Freemasons have used ciphers since at least the 18th century. The Freemason’s cipher is sometimes called the pigpen cipher, because the alphabet is written into a grid of lines, which may look like pigpens, and a cross shape from two diagonal lines. A letter is enciphered by drawing the shape of the cell that encompasses it. Freemasons learned one of the many versions of this cipher as part of the Royal Arch initiation.

Here are the main reasons Freemasons use ciphers:

  • To keep their ritual ceremonies secure so they aren’t easily discovered by the uninitiated

  • To keep messages about Masonic business (like “lodge officers meet one half-hour before the meeting of the full lodge”) just among Masons

  • To have fun, plain and simple

The Grand Lodge style of Freemasonry began in 1717 in London and spread to France in fewer than ten years. In France, Freemasons experimented with the development of so-called high degrees, ritual initiation ceremonies that somehow went beyond the first three degrees of Freemasonry.

These high degree ceremonies were plays that enhanced a Mason’s experience and interaction with the legends, for example, of the temple built by King Solomon. Some believe that the French invented a degree called the Royal Arch, as a kind of completion (keystone) of the third or Master Mason degree.

However the Royal Arch was developed (early Masonic records are notoriously incomplete), history suggests that the Royal Arch degree was being conferred in London in the 1740s. When it comes down to it, the Freemason’s cipher (in any version) is a straight substitution cipher, so you can solve it by substituting a letter for each symbol.

Easy cryptograms with letter substitutions

These five cryptograms are all letter substitution ciphers, at an Easy level. Each letter of the alphabet is substituted by another letter, and no letter is encrypted as itself.

To start out on these puzzles, look for the most frequent letter in each cryptogram — you’ll find it’s almost always E. Single-letter words will be A or I. The words THE, AND, and THAT are the most commonly seen short words in English. Double letters and apostrophes are also helpful when cracking ciphers.

Easy Letter Cipher 1. Crack this cipher to reveal an interesting observation by J. Edgar Hoover, the first Director of the FBI.

XURXE-XSIINBZ, N EOCS PKRBQ, NF XES ASG XK USFDKBFNMIS JNXNYSBFEND. XES XEKRFOBQF KP JUNHNBOIF N EOCS FSSB NB PKUXG GSOUF KP IOT SBPKUJSHSBX EOCS EOQ KBS XENBZ NB JKHHKB: SCSUG FNBZIS KBS TOF O INOU.

Easy Letter Cipher 1 Answer

Easy Letter Cipher 2.This cryptogram contains an old definition of Freemasonry:

HX YPW FNNR WPHE, TAM CNUU ALNM P VNRXGMZ, XYPX TMNNBPWARMZ HW P WZWXNB AT BAMPUHXZ, LNHUNE HR PUUNJAMZ PRE HUUGWXMPXNE FZ WZBFAUW.

Easy Letter Cipher 2 Answer

Easy Letter Cipher 3. Look for repeating letter patterns to crack this cipher.

EOI ETQDGPI ZHEO ORKHLV RL QBIL CHLN, QM JQDTYI, HY EORE BIQBPI ZHPP HLYHYE QL JQCHLV RPQLV RLN ETFHLV EQ BDE EOHLVY HL HE. EITTF BTREJOIEE

Easy Letter Cipher 3 Answer

Easy Letter Cipher 4. Discover what one American president thought about secret societies.

SDD AGRNGI, ZSIF-MZWCX, QZDKIKRSD QSNIKGA SNG XSCYGNZWA IZ SCL CSIKZC, CZ HSIIGN FZE QWNG ZN FZE QSINKZIKR IFG HZIKOGA SCX QNKCRKQDGA EFKRF JKNAI MNKCY IFGH IZYGIFGN. QNGAKXGCI WDLAAGA A YNSCI

Easy Letter Cipher 4 Answer

Easy Letter Cipher 5. This was said by Dr. George Oliver (1782-1867), prominent English Freemason.

AV AL T QWVS AJRWGKOJV XJ OHOZS GTLXJ VX LWIIXZV T KZXVPOZ’L RPTZTRVOZ AJ PAL TKLOJRO OYWTNNS TL VPXWDP PO EOZO IZOLOJV; JXV VX ZOHANO PAG KOPAJQ PAL KTRU JXZ LWMMOZ AV VX KO QXJO KS XVPOZL, EAVPXWV WLAJD OHOZS JOROLLTZS TVVOGIV VX IZOHOJV AV.

Easy Letter Cipher 5 Answer

About This Article

This article is from the book:

  • Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies ,

About the book authors:

Denise Sutherland is a syndicated puzzle author. Her puzzles appear in a range of publications, including the Reader's Digest Mind Stretchers series, and she is the author of Word Searches For Dummies.

Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, PhD, is a 32degree Freemason and expert on the major symbols and ceremonies of Freemasonry. Using this expertise, he analyzed prepublication clues to uncover and blog about key elements of The Lost Symbol. He co-hosts the weekly podcast Masonic Central.

This article can be found in the category:

  • Cryptograms ,
  • Understanding the Freemason’s Cipher
  • Cryptography 101: Basic Solving Techniques for Substitution Ciphers
  • Crack the Code and Find the Secret Word
  • Decipher Some Entertaining Symbol Substitution Cryptograms
  • Tricky Number Substitution Cryptograms
  • View All Articles From Book
Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies Cheat Sheet (2025)

FAQs

What is the hardest code to crack? ›

The Vigenère cipher is a method of encrypting messages by using a series of different Caesar ciphers based on the letters of a particular keyword. The Vigenère cipher is more powerful than a single Caesar cipher and is much harder to crack.

What is the most uncrackable code? ›

AES ‍ One of the hardest codes to crack is arguably the US government's Advanced Encryption Standard (aka Rijndael or AES) which the Americans use to protect top-secret information. AES is considered unbreakable by even the most sophisticated hackers.

What is the strategy for solving cryptograms? ›

The basic strategy is to continually build on what you have, using the letters you know to help figure out other letters and words in the message. Check the list of letters you've used (which are marked off automatically at the top of the puzzle) as you go to help you think about your possibilities.

What is the easiest cipher to decode? ›

In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar's cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar's code, or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques.

What is the easiest secret code to learn? ›

Pig latin is one of the most popular English code languages, in part because it's so easy to learn. To speak or write it, all you have to do is move the first letter from the beginning of the word to the end and add “-ay.” If you're looking for a code you can learn quickly, pig latin might be your best bet.

What's the easiest code to learn? ›

HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, GoLang, R, Ruby, Python, and C are considered to be the easiest programming languages to learn for beginners.

What is the most famous secret code? ›

The Enigma Code

Invented in 1918 by Arthur Scherbius to encrypt business information, it became infamous during the second world war as the preferred way for the Nazis to send confidential communications. It was portable, fast, and largely automated.

What is the most confusing code ever? ›

One such code that has gained notoriety for its mind-boggling complexity is Malbolge. Often dubbed as the "hardest code to master," Malbolge pushes the boundaries of comprehension, leading many to ponder its purpose and viability.

What is the unbreakable code? ›

The code was an intricate web of words designated to military terms and individual letters — it was impossible to break. On August 7, 1942, the Navajo Code Talkers conducted their first major operation — the 1st Marine Division, along with 15 Navajo Code Talkers, hit the beaches of Guadalcanal.

How do you solve cryptograms easy? ›

If you're struggling to get started with any cryptogram, look for the most common letter in the puzzle. In English texts, the most frequently occurring letter is 'E'. In this puzzle, the letter 'B' is the most common letter, so you can pencil in 'E' as a likely substitution for 'B'.

What is the difference between a cipher and a cryptogram? ›

A cryptogram is a type of puzzle that consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that the cryptogram can be solved by hand. Substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by a different letter or number are frequently used.

What are the rules for cryptograms? ›

The Basic Cryptogram Rules

A cryptogram is a puzzle where a phrase has been encoded. You can use a cipher to keep track of your decoding. Each letter is represented by a different letter (or number or symbol). There is only one possible solution and each letter cannot decode to itself (so H cannot be H).

What do the numbers mean in a cryptogram? ›

Well, you'll notice in our cryptograms, we provide a number below each letter. That number tells you how often that particular letter appears in the puzzle (i.e. that letter's "frequency analysis").

What is the cryptogram code? ›

A cryptogram is a kind of secret code. The formal name for this particular kind of code is a simple substitution cipher. Strictly speaking, a code is a method of disguising a message that uses a dictionary of arbitrarily chosen replacements for each possible word.

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