Word of the Day

: January 31, 2009

cryptic

adjective KRIP-tik

What It Means

1 : secret, occult

2 : meant to be puzzling or mysterious

cryptic in Context

The note that Mrs. Drake confiscated from her students contained a cryptic message that she could not decipher.

Did You Know?

The history of "cryptic" starts with "kryptein," a Greek word meaning "to hide." Can you uncover other "kryptein" relatives in English? Not surprisingly, "crypt," meaning "underground chamber," is one. The element "krypton" would be another correct guess, and so would "apocrypha," which can mean "writings of dubious authenticity." "Kryptein" also gave us several words having to do with secret codes, such as "cryptogram" ("a communication in cipher or code") and "cryptography" ("the coding and decoding of secret messages"). And, in fact, something "cryptic" can sometimes seem as if written in code.