Puzzle 1
Starter clue: D = S
PAVDHUBZXXXZRDMAKKWUDHRWEPWXUIHWZDNZGH!XUIH,TVHHZDZEVZKDESWKUTWANZBKEHD,DLVHZGDWEDXESWKREBSD,ZBGEBZNUNHBKTXEHD.
Decoder — write your answer under each cipher letter:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
Learning Cryptograms Set 29
5 cryptograms to solve with a pencil. Each letter of the quote has been swapped for another letter, and the same swap holds all the way through.
20 pt ciphertext — the size a newspaper puzzle page never gives you. 26 pt ciphertext with wide letter spacing and room to write. Both sizes print on US Letter with the answer key on its own page.
Printing this web page instead? Press Ctrl+P (⌘+P on a Mac). The navigation and buttons drop away, and the answer key prints on its own page — open it below first if you want it included.
The puzzles
Puzzle 2
Starter clue: S = E
EXWXJSRDXJARPTDASVOXFPLMLYEGSPWYTPESVADYE,PEADSBYELPSVPEASJSRAXBXESLFYRR,AXOJSZSEAADSSVNLYAPXEXBYEXADSJLFYRR.
Decoder — write your answer under each cipher letter:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
Puzzle 3
Starter clue: V = R
DVCEECVBCS,LVCKLV,DWLEWKVBGBCS;OCBSKWV,DUESCFKBGKWCGAWV,OAUFBGBCS;PLVKZSW-KWJJWV,VLOW-NCSGWV,GLSIZVLV,-AWXSWTWMWVUKABSD.
Decoder — write your answer under each cipher letter:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
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- R
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- X
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Puzzle 4
Starter clue: N = O
OETNDAORRMBLUM,RNBMJOBMR,TNDVFXNIUMAKMNEJGPJTNDPVMJGNDKGJJNFXNI,TNDRGPUULMJGNDKGJ,PXNJGMVJOBM,JNFXNIJGPJTNDFXNIXNJ.
Decoder — write your answer under each cipher letter:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
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- S
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Puzzle 5
Starter clue: J = T
FGJZOJTVCMIEFTJTIJUZLTJTIKVLMRDEPGYYOJMIZLTJ,IEXCGMEVXZOISRYYR'OYIGMVYCRGLT,JTIJORUVJZUVLMVDDZJTZEJTZOYVIMEVXUIE.
Decoder — write your answer under each cipher letter:
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
Solver's cheat sheet
- Most common letters
- E T A O I N S H R D L U
- Most common 1-letter words
- A I
- Most common 2-letter words
- OF TO IN IT IS BE AS AT SO WE HE BY OR ON DO IF ME MY UP AN GO NO US AM
- Most common 3-letter words
- THE AND FOR ARE BUT NOT YOU ALL ANY CAN HER WAS ONE OUR OUT DAY GET HAS HIM HIS HOW MAN NEW NOW OLD SEE TWO WAY WHO BOY DID ITS LET PUT SAY SHE TOO USE
- Common double letters
- LL EE SS OO TT FF RR NN PP CC
- Common word endings
- -ING -ION -ENT -TION -LY -ED -ER -EST
- After an apostrophe
- T (don't) S (it's) RE (we're) VE (I've) LL (we'll) D (I'd)
Want this on its own sheet? Print the letter frequency chart.
Show the answer key (5 solutions)
- “Curse on all laws but those which love has made! Love, free as air at sight of human ties, Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.”— Alexander Pope, 1717, Eloisa to Abelard, Line 74 (in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed., 1891)Cipher key: A=U B=N C=X D=S E=I F=Y G=D H=E I=V J=Z K=T L=P M=B N=M O=J P=C Q=K R=W S=G T=F U=O V=R W=H X=L Y=Q Z=A
- “No more shortsighted policy can be imagined than, in the fancied interest of one class, to prevent the education of another class.”— Theodore Roosevelt, 1906, Sixth Annual Message to CongressCipher key: A=T B=F C=X D=H E=N F=L G=B H=Q I=K J=R K=W L=C M=Y N=U O=P P=I Q=J R=S S=E T=G U=Z V=D W=M X=O Y=A Z=V
- “Grammarian, orator, geometrician; painter, gymnastic teacher, physician; fortune-teller, rope-dancer, conjuror, - he knew everything.”— Juvenal, 110, Satires, III. 76 (in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed., 1891)Cipher key: A=H B=I C=A D=G E=M F=S G=C H=B I=J J=L K=T L=O M=V N=D O=P P=F Q=Z R=X S=N T=W U=Y V=R W=E X=K Y=Q Z=U
- “If you dissemble, sometimes, your knowledge of that you are thought to know, you shall be thought, another time, to know that you know not.”— Francis Bacon, 1625, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and MoralCipher key: A=D B=M C=P D=U E=F F=K G=H H=X I=W J=T K=G L=B M=E N=O O=I P=A Q=Z R=S S=V T=Y U=L V=R W=J X=N Y=C Z=Q
- “Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, And burned is Apollo's laurel bough, That sometime grew within this learned man.”— Christopher Marlowe, 1604, Doctor Faustus (in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed., 1891)Cipher key: A=Q B=K C=B D=W E=N F=C G=U H=Z I=A J=T K=V L=G M=R N=X O=S P=F Q=Y R=O S=P T=H U=M V=E W=J X=D Y=L Z=I