Cipher · Practice · Hints

Cipher #218 hints — Thursday, 6 August 2026

Stuck on today's wheel? Here are three nudges that get harder, then the answer at the very bottom. Nothing above the last section spoils the word.

Standard band — A midweek puzzle: ordinary letters, no tricks.

The ciphertext

This is what the board shows you before any guess. Repeated symbols mean repeated letters.

A·Q·M·M·X·S·
Hint 1 — The shape of it

Today's word has 5 different letters across six positions, so one letter appears twice — look at the ciphertext and you can see exactly where. The vowels sit at positions 2 and 5.

Hint 2 — Where to start

It begins with W and ends with T. If you can place either of those, the wheel hands you that mapping and the ciphertext starts reading back at you.

Hint 3 — Narrowing it down

The word contains more than one vowel and its letters are not all common — there is an awkward one in there. First three letters: WAL…

Show the answer to Cipher #218

The word was WALLET.

AWQAMLMLXEST

Which means the wheel mapped W→A, A→Q, L→M, E→X, T→S.

Play today's Cipher →

Want to try this one yourself instead? Play #218 as practice — no hints, and it won't touch your streak.