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say it: KRIP-tik
cryptic is an adjective meaning "of an obscure nature". It is pronounced /ˈkɹɪptɪk/ — KRIP-tik. It carries 3 recorded senses.
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”
having a secret or hidden meaning
“cabalistic symbols engraved in stone”
“cryptic writings”
“thoroughly sibylline in most of his pronouncements”
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.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for cryptic come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.