How to play Codeword: simple tips to solve the puzzle
Learn how this popular word puzzle works, with expert tips to help you crack the code and complete the Codeword grid.
Saga Magazine
Learn how this popular word puzzle works, with expert tips to help you crack the code and complete the Codeword grid.
Codeword, which is sometimes known as Codewords, is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying puzzle games around. But it can also be one of the most intimidating.
Just take a look at the grid: Codeword looks a lot like a crossword, with lots of spaces waiting to be filled with letters that will make up words. But there’s something missing. In Codeword, there are no clues to those words written down for you.
Instead, each letter in the alphabet is given a number, and your job is to work out which numbers refer to which letters, so that you can fill the grid with words. Each new Codeword puzzle will rescramble these letter and number relationships, but if you’re playing a single Codeword puzzle, the number and letter connections you’ve already spotted will always be fixed.
This all sounds tricky, and Codeword can be wonderfully challenging. But there are things to help you. Every Codeword game will always start by filling in a few letters on the board, and these letters aren’t picked at random. Rather, they will give you enough of a nudge to work out which letters one or two of the other numbers might represent. And from there you’ll hopefully find further clues for working out even more numbers.
Think of playing Codeword as a bit like being a spy. You’re not just trying to work out which numbers represent which letter in a cypher. You’re trying to unmask each number’s secret identity. Is that 11 really an E? That 15 looks like it might be a Y?
So don’t be scared – open up a game of Codeword and start cracking those codes. And to get you started, here are a few beginner’s tips.
This one is worth repeating. Codeword, like all puzzles, is there to be solved. And you’ve been given the clues you need to get started.
Just take it easy at first, ignore the ticking clock, and take in the lay of the grid. Do any spots on it speak to you? Start there.
By this, we mean learn how common certain letters are. This allows you to do something that cryptographers, or people who crack codes for a living, call “frequency analysis.” Basically, if they suspect a code substitutes one symbol for another (Codeword does this, taking letters and substituting numbers in their place), a good way to start if you want to crack it is by working out which symbols appear most commonly.
Once you have a few candidates for the most common number in Codeword, you can be pretty sure that one of them will stand in for the letter E. This, after all, is the letter that appears most commonly in the alphabet. A is the second most common – and it’s not actually that close. Next come the letters R, I, O and T.
You don’t need to spend your whole game relying on the frequencies of numbers, but it’s a great way of getting started. You’ll be surprised by how different a Codeword grid looks when it has a few Es and As in place! Suddenly you’ll find it much easier to spot a few words.
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This is riskier, but it can still be helpful. When you’re looking for the most common numbers to appear on the grid, keep an eye out for numbers that appear very rarely.
Among these you’re likely to find Z, Q, J and X. Fill in some of these and you’ll again see a very different grid from the almost empty one you started with.
This is a biggy. Clear your mind when first looking at the grid, then choose a cluster of visible letters and see if you can spot any words lurking in there. Could that space between an E and a T be an A? That would give you EAT.
A good trick for spotting words is to sound them out. Clusters of three or so letters often give you a syllable, which means that even with words that contain a lot of blank spaces, you can often work out how many syllables they will eventually contain, and the rhythm of the word alone might give you a clue to what it is.
Qs are useful for this, because they’re always – well, almost always! – followed by a U. So if you see a rare number that tends be followed by another specific number every time it appears, you might be onto something.
Equally, letters like Y often arrive at the end of words, and they often have an L nearby. Spotting patterns like this is tricky, and it can lead you awry – but it can also help you to make educated guesses.
You can fill a letter in and then check to see if you’ve gotten it right using the Check button at the top of the screen. If it’s right, great news: you’re one step closer to solving Codeword.
If it’s wrong, just remove it and try something else. Remember, every wrong answer is getting you closer to the right one.
While there are an awful lot of white spaces on a Codeword grid, all you actually need to do is work out which of 26 numbers correspond to each of the 26 letters of the alphabet.
So you’re really only solving 26 separate puzzles. Actually, you’re generally solving fewer than that, because a couple of numbers at least will be given to you at the start!
And remember: Codeword is about spotting patterns, but beyond that it isn’t really about maths at all. The game contains numbers, but you don’t need to add or subtract or – shudder – divide anything!
Just get out there, make a few educated guesses, and see where it gets you. Most of all, have fun!
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