Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use cryptic in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Cryptic means having hidden (unapparent) meaning. Example: “Lonomia caterpillars are extremely cryptic.”

Examples of cryptic by meaning

adjectiveMystified or of an obscure nature; not easy to perceive.

  • Even the putatively innocuous whimsical shapes and designs of cakes and pastry, notably in Central Europe, retain to this day the phallic concept, the cryptic induration of the aphrodisiac function.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page iii

adjectiveWell camouflaged; having good camouflage.

  • Lonomia caterpillars are extremely cryptic.

adjectiveServing as camouflage.

  • Episematic characters are far less common than aposematic, and these than cryptic; although, as regards the latter comparison, the opposite impression is generally produced from the fact that concealment is so successfully attained.1911, “Colours of Animals”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, volume V, page 732

adjectiveLiving in a cavity or small cave.

  • Much of the Permian Capitan reef was strongly differentiated into open surface and cryptic communities.1999, Rachel Wood, Reef Evolution, page 95

nounA cryptic crossword puzzle.

  • He settled down to the cryptic in the Independent.1996, Mary McCarthy, Remember Me, page 85
  • This writer has been solving cryptics for 40 years and can usually crack Araucaria, though it might take a couple of days.2009 February 1, Bill Taylor, “Building a crossword”, in Toronto Star

More sentences with cryptic

  • Her dedication for the book was only a cryptic "Once again, for T".From the entry dedication
  • We’ve seen him flirt with the dot-connectors by throwing out something cryptic for the internet to decode.2025 July 29, Zach Harper, “Luka Dončić’s revenge muscles, plus Nikola Jokić’s horse celebration”, in The Athletic, New York, N.Y.: The…. From the entry dot-connector
  • Even with the most knowing interpreter, his hyperclever, verbose musings remain cryptic.2015 August 2, Stephen Holden, “Review: Karen Oberlin’s ‘His Aim Is True,’ a Tribute to Elvis Costello”, in New York Times. From the entry hyperclever
  • These are as enjoyable examples as any of the eye-wateringly arcane "advanced cryptic."2014 July 10, Alan Connor, The Crossword Century: 100 Years of Witty Wordplay, Ingenious Puzzles, and Linguistic Mischief, Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry advanced cryptic
  • A British cryptic has 15 squares in each row and column.2013 November 7, Alan Connor, “Arcane: Grids, themes, gimmicks and other constraints setters place on themselves”, in Two Girls, One on…. From the entry sedecillion
  • UVC provided better estimates of the rare or cryptic reef associated species.2012, Michael Lowry, Heath Folpp, Marcus Gregson, Iain Suthers, “Comparison of baited remote underwater video (BRUV) and underwater visual…. From the entry UVC
  • What one finds there instead is wikilawyering — cryptic, acronym-laden debate invoking protocol and precedent.2007, Bidoun: A Quarterly Forum for Middle Eastern Talent. From the entry wikilawyering
  • When he called me, I translated the cryptic phrase—ABC is winespeak for “Anything But Chardonnay.”1997 March, Ron Loutherback, “Beyond the Label: The ABCs of white wine”, in Orange Coast, volume 23, number 3, page 168. From the entry ABC
  • That post was followed by more cryptic social media messages and the leak on Reddit of a screenshot showing that Mr.2024 June 7, Rob Copeland, “Roaring Kitty Talked GameStop and Chugged Beer. Shares Plunged.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The…. From the entry meme speak
  • From the wastewaters of the internet, cryptic comments float up from an anonymous figure known only as Q.2023 February 20, Dwight Garner, “QAnon and the Fear and Loathing of an American Conspiracy Theory”, in The New York Times. From the entry wastewater
  • Gave me a cryptic, mostly frustrated-seeming look.2022, Sean Thor Conroe, Fuccboi, Hachette, →ISBN. From the entry bestie
  • In October, an anonymous 4chan account began making cryptic posts about earth-changing political and judicial events to come.2018 May 29, Mike Rothschild, “Who is Q Anon, the internet’s most mysterious poster?”, in The Daily Dot. From the entry qanon
  • Cryptic definitions are the clues you see with question marks in American puzzles, denoting Burns and Allen-style puns.2013 May 1, T. Campbell, On Crosswords: Thoughts, Studies, Facts and Snark About a 100-Year-Old Pastime, Morgan James Publishing, →ISBN…. From the entry cryptic definition
  • In the tradition of other low-level languages, many CIL opcodes tend to be cryptic and completely unpronounceable by us mere humans.2010, Andrew Troelsen, Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform, page 655. From the entry opcode
  • Goodbye to Word’s prim rulers, its officious yardsticks, its self-serious formatting toolbar with cryptic abbreviations (ComicSansMS?) and trinkety icons.2008 January 6, Virginia Heffernan, “An Interface of One’s Own”, in New York Times. From the entry trinkety
  • These eight devices, and combinations thereof, account for nearly every kind of wordplay you will encounter in cryptic crosswords.2001 06, Fraser Simpson, 101 Cryptic Crosswords: From the New Yorker, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 6. From the entry device
  • Cryptic, she seemed to be registering it as.1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII. From the entry cross-talk
  • "This time we aren't interested in anything cute or cryptic.1957 May, William P. McGivern, Alfred Hitchcock's Suspense Magazine, page 102, column 2. From the entry cute
  • While celebrating our “graduation”, a handsome Scot bailed me up outside a pub and insisted I help him solve the cryptic crossword.2023 January 31, Clem Bastow, “My bad trip – I met a handsome Scot with a crossword and thought it was true love”, in The Guardian. From the entry bail
  • He had kept it cryptic on the phone; that plus the uncustomary afternoon meeting would warn the jeweler that it was serious.2021, Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle, Fleet, page 288. From the entry uncustomary
  • As with all varieties of cryptic clues, the container device can be used in conjunction with other devices, especially in more complex cryptic crosswords.2020 March 30, Denise Sutherland, Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 48. From the entry device
  • Spotting a cryptic definition clue can be difficult, but there are commonly one or two, sometimes more, in a typical Telegraph Crossword.2020 August 20, Telegraph Media Group Ltd, The Telegraph: How To Solve a Cryptic Crossword: Mastering cryptic crosswords made easy…. From the entry cryptic definition
  • Since then, a good deal of research has documented and concluded that the nominal species A. fraterculus actually comprises an unresolved complex of cryptic species.2015 November 26, Mosè Manni et al., “Relevant genetic differentiation among Brazilian populations of Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera…. From the entry complex
  • The soldiers spoke in cryptic responses.2013, Mel Odom, Renegade, Tyndale, →ISBN, page 162. From the entry militaryspeak
  • The Real Programmer wants a “you asked for it, you got it” text editor; one that is complicated, cryptic, powerful, unforgiving, and dangerous.2011, Kevin B. Bennett, John M. Flach, Display and Interface Design: Subtle Science, Exact Art, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 110. From the entry Real Programmer
  • With their internal rhymings and cryptic puns and allusions, Williams's lines of dialogue may tax the actor as well as the audience.1996, Charles Adolph Huttar, Peter J. Schakel, The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams, page 228. From the entry rhyming
  • The frustrations of these early days were considerable, and at times there was the temptation to send a cryptic UPSHOVE JOB ARSEWARDS to London.1978 May 27, Eoin O'Brien, “Reading For Pleasure”, in The British Medical Journal, number 6124, page 1408a. From the entry arsewards
  • American crosswords tend to be straightforward, while English ones delight their contestants by being cryptic and, unless 'quick' crosswords, are often set in a 15 × 15 blocked grid.2024 October 10, Richard Coles, Charles Spencer, Cat Jarman, The Rabbit Hole Book: Discover the brilliant book from the creators of the…. From the entry blocked
  • We've heard such rumors before, but this one just got a lot more plausible thanks to a cryptic screenshort from Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey.2016 January 5, Klint Finley, “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Hints Its 140 Character Limit Could End”, in Wired, San Francisco, C.A.: Condé Nast…. From the entry screenshort
  • One form of wordplay that’s proved both popular and fruitful in the National Puzzlers’ League—but has been used rarely if at all in cryptic crosswords—is the letter bank.2013 February 14, Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto, “Going to the Bank”, in The Nation. From the entry letter bank
  • Consideration has been given to the differing needs of various kinds of crosswords, from concise to advanced cryptics, and nothing has been excluded simply on the grounds of obscurity.2012 September 7, Chambers, The Chambers Crossword Dictionary, 3rd edition, Hachette UK, →ISBN. From the entry advanced cryptic
  • I hope the addition of KenKen to the puzzles page is an accommodation to the new size, not preliminary to discontinuation of the cryptic, acrostic, diagramless, etc.2009 June 28, “The Redesign”, in New York Times. From the entry diagramless
  • I had been doing the cryptic version of the Star's two-speed crossword since my days as a junior proofreader in the Department of Posts and Telecommunications.2006, Ivan Vladislavić, The Restless Supermarket, page 46. From the entry two-speed crossword
  • Meanwhile, cryptic comments abound in the investigators' report, such as, “It is beyond the purview of this report to inquire into the vagaries of airline fares.”2005, Pedro Sanjuan, The UN Gang. From the entry oversighter

Meaning of cryptic

  1. adjective Having hidden (unapparent) meaning.
  2. adjective Mystified or of an obscure nature; not easy to perceive.
  3. adjective Involving use of a code or cipher.

Full definition of cryptic

Questions about cryptic in a sentence

How do you use cryptic in a sentence?
Cryptic is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Lonomia caterpillars are extremely cryptic.”
What is a short sentence with cryptic?
“Lonomia caterpillars are extremely cryptic.”
What does cryptic mean?
Cryptic means having hidden (unapparent) meaning.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cryptic (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use cryptic in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/cryptic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.