Cryptic

How to spell cryptic

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cryptic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cryptic mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a hidden or deliberately obscure meaning that is hard to understand.
2. adjectiveDescribing a type of puzzle whose clues rely on wordplay and double meanings rather than plain definitions.

Cryptic in a sentence

• The manager left a cryptic note that nobody on the team could decode.

• He solves the cryptic crossword in the newspaper every morning over coffee.

• Her cryptic reply only deepened the confusion at the meeting.

• Learning to read a cryptic clue takes patience and a feel for anagrams.

Where does cryptic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek kryptikos, meaning 'fit for concealing' or 'hidden', which was built on the verb kryptein, 'to hide'. The same root gives us 'crypt', the hidden underground chamber of a church, and 'cryptography', the science of hidden writing. Latin borrowed the term as crypticus, and English adopted 'cryptic' in the early 1600s, at first in the literal sense of 'concealed' before settling into its modern meaning of deliberately obscure or puzzling. The spelling preserves the Greek y, which is the chief trap, since the word sounds as though it could begin with an i. Remembering the family link to 'crypt' keeps that y firmly in place.

How the word is built

• crypt- (from Greek kryptos: hidden)
• -ic (adjective suffix)