cryptic

1. 1.

   of an obscure nature

   “the new insurance policy is written without cryptic or mysterious terms”

   “a deep dark secret”

   “the inscrutable workings of Providence”

   “in its mysterious past it encompasses all the dim origins of life”

   “rituals totally mystifying to visitors from other lands”

   Synonymscrypticaldeepinscrutablemysteriousmystifying

   Similarinexplicable
2. 2.

   having a secret or hidden meaning

   “cabalistic symbols engraved in stone”

   “cryptic writings”

   “thoroughly sibylline in most of his pronouncements”

   Synonymscabalistickabbalisticqabalisticcrypticalsibylline

   Similaresoteric
3. 3.

   having a puzzling terseness

   “a cryptic note”

   Similarconcise

Other forms of cryptic

comparative

crypticer·

superlative

crypticest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about cryptic

What does cryptic mean?

cryptic means "of an obscure nature". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in cryptic?

cryptic has 2 syllables: cryp-tic. The stress falls on "cryp". In IPA it is /ˈkɹɪptɪk/.

What is another word for cryptic?

Close synonyms include cryptical, deep, inscrutable, mysterious, mystifying. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cryptic a common word?

cryptic is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.