Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having hidden meaning; mystifying. See Synonyms at ambiguous.
- adj. Secret or occult.
- adj. Using code or cipher.
- adj. Biology Tending to conceal or camouflage: cryptic coloring.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Hidden; secret; occult.
- n. The art of recording any discourse so that the meaning is concealed from ordinary readers.
- In biology, serving to conceal or fitted for concealing an organism.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having hidden meaning.
- adj. Mystified or of an obscure nature.
- adj. Involving use of code or cipher/cypher.
- n. A cryptic crossword.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Hidden; secret; occult.
- adj. incomprehensible to those not familiar with the culture or jargon.
- adj. having a secret or hidden meaning.
- adj. having a puzzling terseness.
- adj. not evident; unrecognized.
- adj. written in a code or cipher.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of an obscure nature
- adj. having a secret or hidden meaning
- adj. having a puzzling terseness
Etymologies
- Late Latin crypticus, from Greek kruptikos, from kruptos, hidden, from kruptein, to hide.
Examples
“Here are a couple of verses written in cryptic rhyme from some of my currently published books.”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » INTERVIEW: Verla Kay, Part 1
“I call it cryptic rhyme because I write short, clipped, descriptive verses that paint vivid, concise pictures using almost no full sentences.”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » INTERVIEW: Verla Kay, Part 1
“I bring it to you vintage wine in a bottle new its in Hindi cryptic on cue shot at my house by a friendly camera crew giving a devil his bejeweled sartorial due”
“You have more guts than I do because I remain cryptic on my blog but you and I are in the same place.”
“Good: [begin cryptic] Am getting the coolest of all possible presents.”
“My Mesdames communicated with each other in cryptic ways, but after all my years in their company I was privy to their keys.”
“Although T.Q.D.'s recent songs have lightened up a bit compared with older lyrics that he described as "cryptic," almost all of "Taketh Away" addresses topics from love to day-to-day struggles in a serious tone.”
“That's called 'cryptic foreshadowing,' " Ashley gasped.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Horror Movie That Was Only in My Head
“In the forests the endemic species include, for example, a new genus and species only named a few years ago called the cryptic warbler (Cryptosylvicola randrianasoloi), the yellow-browed oxylabes (Crossleyia xanthophrys), and the brown emutail (Dromaeocercus brunneus).”
“When you must converse with others, you speak a cryptic language of acronyms decipherable only by another geek.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cryptic’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Phonestheme: CR- (or KR-)
Grateful credit to pterodactyl and http://reocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9783/phond1.html.
crook, crack, crane, cremains, cranberries, crimp, crow, crunch, crash, creak, croak, cronk and 94 more...
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Yazhinni Spelling bee
tongue, stallion, scruple, salinity, schedule, rouge, populist, Permian, perspire, pasteurize, multitude, mournful and 227 more...
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Confusually
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baffle, farrago, confound, befuddle, daze, disorient, discombobulate, stupefy, perplex, mystify, bewilder, boggle and 134 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
phantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 294 more...
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Summers Vocabulary # 2
jejune, ingratiate, congruent, cryptic, beleaguer, tangential, impregnable, predilection, surly, dolorous, untoward, renege
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crypto-, crypt-
concealed; secret
cryptogram, crypto-fascist, cryptosporidium, cryptography, cryptic
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