Codeword puzzles: a crossword with the clues removed
A codeword is a completed crossword grid in which every letter of the alphabet has been replaced by a number from 1 to 26. There are no clues. You are given two or three starting letters and you work out the rest from letter patterns and frequency — once a number is solved, it fills in everywhere that number appears.
At a glance
- No clues at all — the grid itself is the clue
- Each number from 1–26 maps to exactly one letter
- You start with two or three letters revealed
- Also sold as Codebreaker or Cracker in puzzle magazines
- Lexora builds them around a topic, so the answers cohere
Cracking your first number
Say number 7 appears fourteen times, more than any other. In English, E is by a wide margin the most common letter, followed by T and A — so 7 is almost certainly E. Now look for a three-letter word ending in 7: THE is the most common three-letter word in English, which hands you T and H in one move. That is the whole game in miniature: frequency gives you a foothold, patterns do the rest.
How to solve a codeword
- Write in the given letters everywhere their numbers appear before doing anything else.
- Count occurrences. The most frequent number is usually E, T or A.
- Hunt for one-letter words — in English they can only be A or I.
- A doubled number inside a word is usually LL, SS, EE, OO or TT.
- A number appearing at the end of many words is likely S, E, D or T.
- Q is the giveaway: if a number is always followed by the same other number, you have found Q and U.
- Pencil, never pen — one wrong letter propagates across the whole grid.
Questions people ask
- What is a codeword puzzle?
- A crossword-shaped grid where each letter has been swapped for a number from 1 to 26, with no clues provided. You deduce which number is which letter using letter frequency and word patterns, then fill the grid.
- How do you start a codeword?
- Fill in the given letters everywhere, then count which number appears most often — that is usually E. Look for one-letter words (A or I), common three-letter words like THE, and doubled letters. Each solved number unlocks more of the grid.
- Is a codeword the same as a cryptogram?
- They are close but not identical. A cryptogram encodes a sentence or quotation; a codeword encodes a full interlocking crossword grid, so you get far more crossing letters to work with.
- Do I need a codeword solver?
- No — and using one removes the puzzle. The frequency and pattern method above cracks almost every grid. Lexora also gives you an in-game hint if a corner genuinely stalls, which reveals one letter rather than the answer.
Play it in Lexora
Codeword puzzles is one of eight modes in Lexora, the AI word puzzle app. Free on Android, no account needed to start.
Want the longer version? How to solve codeword puzzles: a beginner's method