Definition of cryptic in English:

cryptic

adjective ˈkrɪptɪkˈkrɪptɪk

1Having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure.
he found his boss's utterances too cryptic
Example sentencesExamples
- She sings cryptic, mysterious lyrics, letting her voice guide the song.
- This is not just the rich texture of external life, relationships, the natural world, occupations, society, but the internal, cryptic dimension of dreams and the sub-conscious.
- She differentiates between cryptic graffiti that communicates to others within a closed community, and political graffiti that aims to communicate a message to a wider audience.
- It bore the cryptic message, ‘Toilets downstairs then sharp right.’
- While it all seems a little cryptic and confused, the duo promise a night of bizarre and sweet surprises where everyone is welcome.
- He's always been a cryptic songwriter, fond of oblique references and catchy off-the-wall phrasings, but here his metaphors and jests are haunted with regret and suspicion.
- However, the story line later digresses and becomes confusing and cryptic.
- I'm having trouble locating full info and images on the web, but the CD insert folded out to become a poster that had cryptic, pie-chart-style graphics for titles.
- You might think you are just waiting for a bus, or wandering from room to room looking for your cigarettes, watching a TV show, or reading a cryptic and ambiguous book.
- If there's something I want to keep private, then I simply don't write about it, or I write it in such a cryptic way that only I will know what's between the lines, when I read back on it later.
- In the Great Depression, hobos who roamed transiently across North America invented pictographic graffiti languages which were cryptic to the police but well understood in their community.
- At first glance, this book seems cryptic, threatening and confusing.
- It is not that their conversations are obscure or cryptic.
- When he felt up to it, he launched himself back into life, leaving behind selected items for safekeeping: his Highland dancing pumps, army hat and journals crammed with cryptic pieces of tattered paper.
- The letter bears no signature and no address; it's at once passionate and oblique, fervent and cryptic.
- This ambiguous attitude makes his art cryptic: viewers are left grasping at answers.
- We should be careful, because the Delphic Oracle used cryptic answers that often left the inquisitor more confused than helped.
- His lovingly made mixed-media objects, installations and text-based works possess an engagingly cryptic quality - an aspect of the power of visual art to assert its resemblance to linguistic form.
- While the poetry is cryptic, allusive and ambiguous, the prose is lucid, oracular, loftily self-assured.
- On the contrary, the singer values his cryptic, enigmatic inscrutability.
Synonyms
enigmatic, mysterious, hard to understand, confusing, mystifying, perplexing, puzzling, obscure, abstruse, arcane, oracular, Delphic, ambiguous, elliptical, oblique
informal as clear as mud
1. 1.1 (of a crossword) having difficult clues which indicate the solutions indirectly.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Filling in the various forms is a bit like filling in a cryptic crossword, except that the answers aren't published in the paper the next day.
  Conversations were like cryptic crossword clues.
  Never trust a person who does cryptic crosswords
  I'm a great fan of cryptic crosswords, even though they are tantalisingly difficult.
  Anyone keen to learn the secrets of cryptic crosswords will find more than enough clues in this charming memoir, which traces Balfour's own growing fascination with puzzles.
  It's like a cryptic crossword, you can look at a clue and not have the foggiest idea of what it is you're aiming for, but get a couple of the letters in place and something can jump out at you.
  It may sound like a simple solution to a cryptic clue but it's reality.
  This is a book where even the title sounds like a cryptic clue from an Irish Times crossword.
  I hate cryptic crosswords, that doesn't tend to be how my intelligence can be applied.
  Though densely packed with official papers the narrative is never dull and for the specialist in constitutional niceties the challenge in reading is almost as subtle as a cryptic crossword.
  A vexatious variant of the crossword is the cryptic crossword - just reading the clues to a cryptic crossword is enough to reduce whole swathes of the population to weeping and gibbering.
  It was his girlfriend who taught him to love cryptic crosswords, as they backpacked across Africa to a new life in London, and it's a passion that seems to have endured.
  He left his cryptic crossword on the desk, with two clues still unanswered.
  To some, modern poetry is like a cryptic crossword devised by second world war codebreakers.
  When was the last time you did a cryptic crossword or challenged yourself with a difficult puzzle to solve?
  And that brings us to that special breed of people but for whom the world would be quite clueless about crosswords, cryptic or simple.
2Zoology
(of coloration or markings) serving to camouflage an animal in its natural environment.
cryptic plumage is thought to minimize predation
Example sentencesExamples
- Pelagic species appear to have converged on four major strategies for crypsis: transparency, mirroring, cryptic coloration, and counterillumination.
- While males remain white, females molt into one of the most cryptic plumages known in birds.
- This shielding along with the cryptic coloration of the predator prevents the prey from becoming alarmed.
- A few species of accipitrids may use cryptic coloration to get close to their prey.
- Female hummingbirds have more cryptic coloration than males, most likely so that they do not attract predators to the nest when incubating and feeding chicks.

Derivatives

cryptically

adverb ˈkrɪptɪk(ə)li

On those occasions when we had to leave suddenly or silently on her account, my mother would flush with excitement and speak cryptically to me, her sentences spare and hurried.
Example sentencesExamples
- Its billboards typically featured postmodern designs in bright colors that depicted the pieces of a jigsaw, or single images with cryptically clever questions.
- ‘It's got certain connotations for him,’ says Perry, cryptically.
- When asked whether they were more important than his political career, he cryptically replied ‘Yes, of course.’
- He replied cryptically: " The earth is rotating and is round.

Origin

Early 17th century: from late Latin crypticus, from Greek kruptikos, from kruptos 'hidden'. sense 2 dates from the late 19th century.

Rhymes

apocalyptic, diptych, elliptic, glyptic, styptic, triptych

Definition of cryptic in US English:

cryptic

adjectiveˈkrɪptɪkˈkriptik

1Having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure.
he found his boss's utterances too cryptic
Example sentencesExamples
- It bore the cryptic message, ‘Toilets downstairs then sharp right.’
- When he felt up to it, he launched himself back into life, leaving behind selected items for safekeeping: his Highland dancing pumps, army hat and journals crammed with cryptic pieces of tattered paper.
- The letter bears no signature and no address; it's at once passionate and oblique, fervent and cryptic.
- On the contrary, the singer values his cryptic, enigmatic inscrutability.
- This is not just the rich texture of external life, relationships, the natural world, occupations, society, but the internal, cryptic dimension of dreams and the sub-conscious.
- While the poetry is cryptic, allusive and ambiguous, the prose is lucid, oracular, loftily self-assured.
- I'm having trouble locating full info and images on the web, but the CD insert folded out to become a poster that had cryptic, pie-chart-style graphics for titles.
- You might think you are just waiting for a bus, or wandering from room to room looking for your cigarettes, watching a TV show, or reading a cryptic and ambiguous book.
- However, the story line later digresses and becomes confusing and cryptic.
- His lovingly made mixed-media objects, installations and text-based works possess an engagingly cryptic quality - an aspect of the power of visual art to assert its resemblance to linguistic form.
- While it all seems a little cryptic and confused, the duo promise a night of bizarre and sweet surprises where everyone is welcome.
- At first glance, this book seems cryptic, threatening and confusing.
- He's always been a cryptic songwriter, fond of oblique references and catchy off-the-wall phrasings, but here his metaphors and jests are haunted with regret and suspicion.
- She sings cryptic, mysterious lyrics, letting her voice guide the song.
- If there's something I want to keep private, then I simply don't write about it, or I write it in such a cryptic way that only I will know what's between the lines, when I read back on it later.
- She differentiates between cryptic graffiti that communicates to others within a closed community, and political graffiti that aims to communicate a message to a wider audience.
- In the Great Depression, hobos who roamed transiently across North America invented pictographic graffiti languages which were cryptic to the police but well understood in their community.
- We should be careful, because the Delphic Oracle used cryptic answers that often left the inquisitor more confused than helped.
- It is not that their conversations are obscure or cryptic.
- This ambiguous attitude makes his art cryptic: viewers are left grasping at answers.
Synonyms
enigmatic, mysterious, hard to understand, confusing, mystifying, perplexing, puzzling, obscure, abstruse, arcane, oracular, delphic, ambiguous, elliptical, oblique
1. 1.1 (of a crossword) having difficult clues which indicate the solutions indirectly.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Anyone keen to learn the secrets of cryptic crosswords will find more than enough clues in this charming memoir, which traces Balfour's own growing fascination with puzzles.
  To some, modern poetry is like a cryptic crossword devised by second world war codebreakers.
  It's like a cryptic crossword, you can look at a clue and not have the foggiest idea of what it is you're aiming for, but get a couple of the letters in place and something can jump out at you.
  It may sound like a simple solution to a cryptic clue but it's reality.
  When was the last time you did a cryptic crossword or challenged yourself with a difficult puzzle to solve?
  Never trust a person who does cryptic crosswords
  He left his cryptic crossword on the desk, with two clues still unanswered.
  And that brings us to that special breed of people but for whom the world would be quite clueless about crosswords, cryptic or simple.
  It was his girlfriend who taught him to love cryptic crosswords, as they backpacked across Africa to a new life in London, and it's a passion that seems to have endured.
  This is a book where even the title sounds like a cryptic clue from an Irish Times crossword.
  Though densely packed with official papers the narrative is never dull and for the specialist in constitutional niceties the challenge in reading is almost as subtle as a cryptic crossword.
  I hate cryptic crosswords, that doesn't tend to be how my intelligence can be applied.
  I'm a great fan of cryptic crosswords, even though they are tantalisingly difficult.
  Conversations were like cryptic crossword clues.
  A vexatious variant of the crossword is the cryptic crossword - just reading the clues to a cryptic crossword is enough to reduce whole swathes of the population to weeping and gibbering.
  Filling in the various forms is a bit like filling in a cryptic crossword, except that the answers aren't published in the paper the next day.
2Zoology
(of coloration or markings) serving to camouflage an animal in its natural environment.
Example sentencesExamples
- A few species of accipitrids may use cryptic coloration to get close to their prey.
- This shielding along with the cryptic coloration of the predator prevents the prey from becoming alarmed.
- Female hummingbirds have more cryptic coloration than males, most likely so that they do not attract predators to the nest when incubating and feeding chicks.
- Pelagic species appear to have converged on four major strategies for crypsis: transparency, mirroring, cryptic coloration, and counterillumination.
- While males remain white, females molt into one of the most cryptic plumages known in birds.

Origin

Early 17th century: from late Latin crypticus, from Greek kruptikos, from kruptos ‘hidden’. cryptic (sense 2) dates from the late 19th century.

单词	cryptic
释义	Definition of cryptic in English: cryptic adjective ˈkrɪptɪkˈkrɪptɪk 1Having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure. he found his boss's utterances too cryptic Example sentencesExamples She sings cryptic, mysterious lyrics, letting her voice guide the song. This is not just the rich texture of external life, relationships, the natural world, occupations, society, but the internal, cryptic dimension of dreams and the sub-conscious. She differentiates between cryptic graffiti that communicates to others within a closed community, and political graffiti that aims to communicate a message to a wider audience. It bore the cryptic message, ‘Toilets downstairs then sharp right.’ While it all seems a little cryptic and confused, the duo promise a night of bizarre and sweet surprises where everyone is welcome. He's always been a cryptic songwriter, fond of oblique references and catchy off-the-wall phrasings, but here his metaphors and jests are haunted with regret and suspicion. However, the story line later digresses and becomes confusing and cryptic. I'm having trouble locating full info and images on the web, but the CD insert folded out to become a poster that had cryptic, pie-chart-style graphics for titles. You might think you are just waiting for a bus, or wandering from room to room looking for your cigarettes, watching a TV show, or reading a cryptic and ambiguous book. If there's something I want to keep private, then I simply don't write about it, or I write it in such a cryptic way that only I will know what's between the lines, when I read back on it later. In the Great Depression, hobos who roamed transiently across North America invented pictographic graffiti languages which were cryptic to the police but well understood in their community. At first glance, this book seems cryptic, threatening and confusing. It is not that their conversations are obscure or cryptic. When he felt up to it, he launched himself back into life, leaving behind selected items for safekeeping: his Highland dancing pumps, army hat and journals crammed with cryptic pieces of tattered paper. The letter bears no signature and no address; it's at once passionate and oblique, fervent and cryptic. This ambiguous attitude makes his art cryptic: viewers are left grasping at answers. We should be careful, because the Delphic Oracle used cryptic answers that often left the inquisitor more confused than helped. His lovingly made mixed-media objects, installations and text-based works possess an engagingly cryptic quality - an aspect of the power of visual art to assert its resemblance to linguistic form. While the poetry is cryptic, allusive and ambiguous, the prose is lucid, oracular, loftily self-assured. On the contrary, the singer values his cryptic, enigmatic inscrutability. Synonyms enigmatic, mysterious, hard to understand, confusing, mystifying, perplexing, puzzling, obscure, abstruse, arcane, oracular, Delphic, ambiguous, elliptical, oblique informal as clear as mud 1.1 (of a crossword) having difficult clues which indicate the solutions indirectly. Example sentencesExamples Filling in the various forms is a bit like filling in a cryptic crossword, except that the answers aren't published in the paper the next day. Conversations were like cryptic crossword clues. Never trust a person who does cryptic crosswords I'm a great fan of cryptic crosswords, even though they are tantalisingly difficult. Anyone keen to learn the secrets of cryptic crosswords will find more than enough clues in this charming memoir, which traces Balfour's own growing fascination with puzzles. It's like a cryptic crossword, you can look at a clue and not have the foggiest idea of what it is you're aiming for, but get a couple of the letters in place and something can jump out at you. It may sound like a simple solution to a cryptic clue but it's reality. This is a book where even the title sounds like a cryptic clue from an Irish Times crossword. I hate cryptic crosswords, that doesn't tend to be how my intelligence can be applied. Though densely packed with official papers the narrative is never dull and for the specialist in constitutional niceties the challenge in reading is almost as subtle as a cryptic crossword. A vexatious variant of the crossword is the cryptic crossword - just reading the clues to a cryptic crossword is enough to reduce whole swathes of the population to weeping and gibbering. It was his girlfriend who taught him to love cryptic crosswords, as they backpacked across Africa to a new life in London, and it's a passion that seems to have endured. He left his cryptic crossword on the desk, with two clues still unanswered. To some, modern poetry is like a cryptic crossword devised by second world war codebreakers. When was the last time you did a cryptic crossword or challenged yourself with a difficult puzzle to solve? And that brings us to that special breed of people but for whom the world would be quite clueless about crosswords, cryptic or simple. 2Zoology (of coloration or markings) serving to camouflage an animal in its natural environment. cryptic plumage is thought to minimize predation Example sentencesExamples Pelagic species appear to have converged on four major strategies for crypsis: transparency, mirroring, cryptic coloration, and counterillumination. While males remain white, females molt into one of the most cryptic plumages known in birds. This shielding along with the cryptic coloration of the predator prevents the prey from becoming alarmed. A few species of accipitrids may use cryptic coloration to get close to their prey. Female hummingbirds have more cryptic coloration than males, most likely so that they do not attract predators to the nest when incubating and feeding chicks. Derivatives cryptically adverb ˈkrɪptɪk(ə)li On those occasions when we had to leave suddenly or silently on her account, my mother would flush with excitement and speak cryptically to me, her sentences spare and hurried. Example sentencesExamples Its billboards typically featured postmodern designs in bright colors that depicted the pieces of a jigsaw, or single images with cryptically clever questions. ‘It's got certain connotations for him,’ says Perry, cryptically. When asked whether they were more important than his political career, he cryptically replied ‘Yes, of course.’ He replied cryptically: " The earth is rotating and is round. Origin Early 17th century: from late Latin crypticus, from Greek kruptikos, from kruptos 'hidden'. sense 2 dates from the late 19th century. Rhymes apocalyptic, diptych, elliptic, glyptic, styptic, triptych Definition of cryptic in US English: cryptic adjectiveˈkrɪptɪkˈkriptik 1Having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure. he found his boss's utterances too cryptic Example sentencesExamples It bore the cryptic message, ‘Toilets downstairs then sharp right.’ When he felt up to it, he launched himself back into life, leaving behind selected items for safekeeping: his Highland dancing pumps, army hat and journals crammed with cryptic pieces of tattered paper. The letter bears no signature and no address; it's at once passionate and oblique, fervent and cryptic. On the contrary, the singer values his cryptic, enigmatic inscrutability. This is not just the rich texture of external life, relationships, the natural world, occupations, society, but the internal, cryptic dimension of dreams and the sub-conscious. While the poetry is cryptic, allusive and ambiguous, the prose is lucid, oracular, loftily self-assured. I'm having trouble locating full info and images on the web, but the CD insert folded out to become a poster that had cryptic, pie-chart-style graphics for titles. You might think you are just waiting for a bus, or wandering from room to room looking for your cigarettes, watching a TV show, or reading a cryptic and ambiguous book. However, the story line later digresses and becomes confusing and cryptic. His lovingly made mixed-media objects, installations and text-based works possess an engagingly cryptic quality - an aspect of the power of visual art to assert its resemblance to linguistic form. While it all seems a little cryptic and confused, the duo promise a night of bizarre and sweet surprises where everyone is welcome. At first glance, this book seems cryptic, threatening and confusing. He's always been a cryptic songwriter, fond of oblique references and catchy off-the-wall phrasings, but here his metaphors and jests are haunted with regret and suspicion. She sings cryptic, mysterious lyrics, letting her voice guide the song. If there's something I want to keep private, then I simply don't write about it, or I write it in such a cryptic way that only I will know what's between the lines, when I read back on it later. She differentiates between cryptic graffiti that communicates to others within a closed community, and political graffiti that aims to communicate a message to a wider audience. In the Great Depression, hobos who roamed transiently across North America invented pictographic graffiti languages which were cryptic to the police but well understood in their community. We should be careful, because the Delphic Oracle used cryptic answers that often left the inquisitor more confused than helped. It is not that their conversations are obscure or cryptic. This ambiguous attitude makes his art cryptic: viewers are left grasping at answers. Synonyms enigmatic, mysterious, hard to understand, confusing, mystifying, perplexing, puzzling, obscure, abstruse, arcane, oracular, delphic, ambiguous, elliptical, oblique 1.1 (of a crossword) having difficult clues which indicate the solutions indirectly. Example sentencesExamples Anyone keen to learn the secrets of cryptic crosswords will find more than enough clues in this charming memoir, which traces Balfour's own growing fascination with puzzles. To some, modern poetry is like a cryptic crossword devised by second world war codebreakers. It's like a cryptic crossword, you can look at a clue and not have the foggiest idea of what it is you're aiming for, but get a couple of the letters in place and something can jump out at you. It may sound like a simple solution to a cryptic clue but it's reality. When was the last time you did a cryptic crossword or challenged yourself with a difficult puzzle to solve? Never trust a person who does cryptic crosswords He left his cryptic crossword on the desk, with two clues still unanswered. And that brings us to that special breed of people but for whom the world would be quite clueless about crosswords, cryptic or simple. It was his girlfriend who taught him to love cryptic crosswords, as they backpacked across Africa to a new life in London, and it's a passion that seems to have endured. This is a book where even the title sounds like a cryptic clue from an Irish Times crossword. Though densely packed with official papers the narrative is never dull and for the specialist in constitutional niceties the challenge in reading is almost as subtle as a cryptic crossword. I hate cryptic crosswords, that doesn't tend to be how my intelligence can be applied. I'm a great fan of cryptic crosswords, even though they are tantalisingly difficult. Conversations were like cryptic crossword clues. A vexatious variant of the crossword is the cryptic crossword - just reading the clues to a cryptic crossword is enough to reduce whole swathes of the population to weeping and gibbering. Filling in the various forms is a bit like filling in a cryptic crossword, except that the answers aren't published in the paper the next day. 2Zoology (of coloration or markings) serving to camouflage an animal in its natural environment. Example sentencesExamples A few species of accipitrids may use cryptic coloration to get close to their prey. This shielding along with the cryptic coloration of the predator prevents the prey from becoming alarmed. Female hummingbirds have more cryptic coloration than males, most likely so that they do not attract predators to the nest when incubating and feeding chicks. Pelagic species appear to have converged on four major strategies for crypsis: transparency, mirroring, cryptic coloration, and counterillumination. While males remain white, females molt into one of the most cryptic plumages known in birds. Origin Early 17th century: from late Latin crypticus, from Greek kruptikos, from kruptos ‘hidden’. cryptic (sense 2) dates from the late 19th century.
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