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The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.
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adj. 1. Having hidden meaning; mystifying. See Synonyms at mysterious. 2. Secret or occult. 3. Using code or cipher. 4. Biology Tending to conceal or camouflage: cryptic coloring. [Late Latin crypticus, from Greek kruptikos, from kruptos, hidden, from kruptein, to hide.] crypti·cal·ly adv. cryptic·ness n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
