🔥 21–60 words · 60 puzzles

Hard Cryptograms

These are the long ones. Hard cryptograms are over twenty words, reveal no letters at all, and strip punctuation down to apostrophes, so you must crack the cipher from letter frequencies and word patterns alone. The longer text gives you plenty to work with, and every one is checked to be solvable.

All 60 hard cryptograms

Hard cryptograms are long, over twenty words, with no letters revealed and punctuation stripped down to apostrophes, so you have to crack the cipher from letter frequencies and word patterns alone. Each puzzle has its own permanent page with a play mode, a print sheet and an answer page. Tip: new to this? Read how to solve a cryptogram first.

Puzzle guide

About hard cryptograms

What they are

Hard cryptograms are long passages of more than twenty words with nothing revealed and almost all punctuation removed. Only apostrophes survive, so you cannot lean on commas or question marks to see where a sentence turns. This is code-breaking by frequency and word shape alone.

How to play

Tally how often each coded letter appears and jot the counts in the margin. Then look at word shapes: a three-letter word whose first and last letters match, or a long word with a repeated pair, narrows the options more than any single letter can.

Tips

Build a short list of pattern words such as THAT, PEOPLE and LITTLE, and match them against coded words with the same repeats. Work in pencil and be ready to rub out a whole chain of guesses if one turns out wrong; on a hard puzzle that is part of the fun.

Who they suit

Hard cryptograms are made for experienced solvers, word-game lovers and anyone who enjoys a slow, methodical puzzle. Older teens who like codes and ciphers often take to them quickly.

Printing

Print one per page so long passages stay legible and there is room to tally letter counts. The solution prints separately.

Good to know

Hard cryptogram questions

Punctuation gives away sentence structure. Removing it, apart from apostrophes, leaves you with letter patterns only, which is what makes this level hard.

Count the coded letters, treat the most common as E or T, and test short words against THE, AND and THAT. Pattern words with repeated letters are the next best foothold.

Absolutely. It is the classic method for breaking substitution ciphers, and long texts are exactly where it works best.

Fancy a different kind of puzzle?