Baffled by Sherlock Holmes' cryptic remarks, Watson wondered whether Holmes was intentionally concealing his thoughts about the crime.
Source: tatoeba (2002)
Cryptic
//ˈkɹɪptɪk//
Synonyms for "cryptic" (102 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (21)
Strong matches (30)
enigmaticequivocalesotericevasivefinehermetichibernatinghiddenhush hushhush-hushincomprehensibleindefiniteinexplicablekabbalisticlatentlurkingmuffledmurkymysteriousmystic
Show 3 more words
Adjective(3 words)
Adjective(4 words)
Related words (51)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Synonyms
2 entriesRelated terms
1 entriesderived
15 entrieshas context
2 entriesrelated to
4 entriessimilar
5 entriesTranslations
32 translations across 16 languages.
Arabic
1 entries- مُبْهَم adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
Bulgarian
3 entries- загадъчен adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
- таен adj (having hidden meaning)
- шифрован adj (involving use of code or cipher)
Catalan
2 entries- críptic adj (having hidden meaning)
- críptic adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
Dutch
2 entries- cryptisch adj (having hidden meaning)
- cryptisch adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
Esperanto
1 entries- kripta adj (having hidden meaning)
French
3 entries- cryptique adj (having hidden meaning)
- mystérieux adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
- énigmatique adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
German
3 entries- kryptisch adj (having hidden meaning)
- kryptisch adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
- kryptisch adj (involving use of code or cipher)
Greek
2 entries- κρυπτικός adj (having hidden meaning)
- κρυπτικός adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
Hebrew
1 entries- מוצפן adj (involving use of code or cipher)
Italian
1 entries- criptico adj (having hidden meaning)
Korean
2 entries- 숨은 뜻을 가진 adj (having hidden meaning)
- 아리송한 adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
Māori
2 entries- tākirikiri adj (having hidden meaning)
- tākirikiri adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
Polish
1 entries- niejasny adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
Portuguese
3 entries- críptico adj (having hidden meaning)
- críptico adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
- críptico adj (involving use of code or cipher)
Spanish
3 entries- críptico adj (having hidden meaning)
- críptico adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
- críptico adj (involving use of code or cipher)
Turkish
2 entries- gizemli adj (mystified or of an obscure nature)
- şifreli adj (involving use of code or cipher)
Sample sentences
19 total sentences available.
Things are getting a little more cryptic!
Source: tatoeba (1135005)
Tom was writing cryptic notes in a cipher.
Source: tatoeba (6108746)
Samuel R. Delany is a mulatto American sci-fi writer. His interesting writings often entail sexual issues in an outer space setting. Whilst the writings of the British knighted sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke are less titillating, he ventures into cryptic sexual symbolisms.
Source: tatoeba (10557526)
Showing 4 of 19 available sentences.
Keep exploring
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.