Cryptoquip

Written and checked by hand. Last reviewed August 10, 2026.

A cryptoquip is the daily newspaper puzzle in which a joke has been hidden behind a letter-for-letter substitution cipher, with one clue letter printed underneath to start you off. This page gathers everything we have on it: what it is, what the clue means, how to finish one, and what to do when you are stuck on the one in front of you. Start wherever your question is.

What a cryptoquip is

If you have just met the puzzle, or you want to know who makes it and why the answer is always a pun, read what a cryptoquip is first. It covers who publishes it, the two things that make it different from every other cipher puzzle on the page, and a worked example of ours with the answer folded away. It is the page we would hand to somebody who has never finished one.

Stuck on today's cryptoquip

We do not reprint the syndicated puzzle or its solution, and we will explain why on the page about today's cryptoquip answer. That page also shows you the way round the problem: type the puzzle from your paper and the clue letter it printed into our solver, and you have the answer in about a minute, without anybody having to republish anyone else's work.

The cryptoquip solver

The cryptoquip solver takes the cipher text exactly as it appears in the paper, plus the clue letter if you have one, and works out the substitution. It runs entirely inside your own browser: there is no server behind the button, nothing is uploaded, and nothing is kept. If it cannot finish the puzzle it still shows you the letters it proved, which is usually enough to get you moving again by hand.

What the clue letter means

The line under the puzzle that reads Today's Cryptoquip clue: D equals C is the single most useful thing on the page, and it is also the thing most often read backwards. Our page on the clue letter explains which of the two letters is the one printed in the puzzle, why one given pair is worth far more than one letter, and why a clue involving a rare letter is usually pointing straight at the joke.

How to solve a cryptoquip yourself

The method is the same for every puzzle in this family, and it is worth about ten minutes of your time once. Our step-by-step guide takes a real puzzle from a blank page to a finished sentence and explains the reasoning behind each move: short words first, then frequency, then doubled letters and common endings. The letter frequency chart is the same information on one page you can print and keep beside the paper.

Cryptoquip and cryptoquote: the difference

The two features come from the same syndicate and are solved the same way, but they behave differently under your pencil: one hides a quotation and names a speaker, the other hides a joke and gives you a clue letter. The comparison page sets all three names out in a table, so you can settle in a few seconds which puzzle you are actually holding.

Cryptograms you can print

If you would rather solve on paper than on a screen, the printable puzzle sheets are free PDFs with the answer key on the second page, so nothing gets spoiled while you work. The large print set uses much bigger type with room to write above each letter, which is what most people over sixty actually want and rarely get.

Our own daily puzzle starts on September 21, 2026

Our own puzzles are quotation cryptograms rather than quips, and they are ours to publish because we set them ourselves from writing that is in the public domain. From September 21, 2026 there will be a new one every morning, in large type, with the answer folded away on the same page and the author, year and source printed underneath. Each one will stay up for good in the archive, so there will be no daily deadline to miss.

Why there is no answer archive here

Cryptoquip is a King Features Syndicate feature, and its puzzles and solutions are their property. Sites that post the syndicated answer each day are republishing work they do not own, and they are often wrong for a good share of their readers anyway, because papers schedule the feature themselves and some run days behind. We would rather hand you a tool and a method that work on whichever puzzle is actually in front of you.

Questions we get

Where can I find today's cryptoquip answer?

Not here, because it is not ours to print. The daily puzzle belongs to King Features Syndicate. What we give you instead is a solver that reads the puzzle in your own newspaper and works it out on your own computer, which takes about a minute and takes nothing from anybody.

Is there a cryptoquip solver on this site?

Yes. Our cryptoquip solver handles cryptoquips, cryptoquotes and plain cryptograms alike, and it has a field for the clue letter your paper printed. It runs inside your browser, so nothing you type leaves your computer.

Do you have puzzles like this that I can print?

Yes, and they are free. The printable sheets are PDFs with the answer key on the second page, and there is a large print set in extra-big type with room to write.

My paper stopped running the cryptoquip. What happened?

Papers have been cutting their puzzle pages for years, and syndicated features are usually the first to go. Our page on newspaper cryptogram puzzles covers why it happens and what your options are.