Count how many times each symbol appears in the puzzle.
The secret word has more than three letters. This secret word isn’t listed in the Hints or Answers, and it isn’t mentioned anywhere within the book. To learn how to use the structure of English sentences to fill in the blanks, keep reading! However, the pattern 1 – – 1 also represents 30 other words, so keep this in mind! Pencil in your guesses over the ciphertext. The most common two letter words are: OF, TO, IN, IS, IT, AS, HE, BE, BY, ON, OR, and AT. Learn more... Cryptograms can be fun brain-teasers and mind-melters, or they can quickly leave you wanting to throw your pencil against the wall. That number tells you how often that particular letter appears in the puzzle (i.e. To create this article, 38 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. If you find two two-letter words where the letters are reversed, you've got either "no" and "on." However, if adjacent letters repeat, they're more likely to consonants. As you discover the value of each letter, write it above corresponding letter on your scratch key. M, R, and S appear three or four times each. Many aphorisms will include binaries to compare and make a rhetorical point. Start looking for possibilities, if you've got a question mark at the end of the cryptogram sentence. Only a few letters are actually ever repeated twice in a word: RR, LL, NN, MM, and fewer of these are in small words. Most cryptograms or cryptoquotes are basic substitution ciphers, meaning that the letters of the alphabet are being represented by other letters. Learning a few easy patterns and tricks, though, can help you crack the code and make them a whole lot more fun. This seems to create complete gibberish on a screen, such as: However, there are actually very clear and deliberate ways to figure out exactly what letters are substituted and the meaning of the cryptogram. One frustrating problem can be a cryptogram with errors in it, whether grammatical, spelling, or an encoding error – however, that can be looked on as just another bit of the puzzle to figure out, above and beyond the basic cryptographic algorithm. Sometimes, for example, they try to throw in non-transposed letters, so that ALL would be encoded GLL and a person spends forever trying to figure out what the letter L represents (the answer being itself).

Since the first word is "THIS," and the letter combination YG (which you now know is TH) doesn't appear at the beginning of any other words, you know that none of them are words with TH at the beginning. Now, you can begin the process of trial and error by substituting the popular letters for the common ones. Unless the text is about skiing or vacuuming, a doubled vowel is probably "e" or "o". Use basic solving techniques to crack substitution ciphers, including the Freemason’s cipher.

Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, PhD, is a 32degree Freemason and expert on the major symbols and ceremonies of Freemasonry. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/9\/94\/Solve-a-Cryptogram-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Solve-a-Cryptogram-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/9\/94\/Solve-a-Cryptogram-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/aid14931-v4-700px-Solve-a-Cryptogram-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":368,"bigWidth":"700","bigHeight":"560","licensing":"