Tool to decrypt/encrypt dancing men code (cipher used in the Sherlock Holmes book of the same name). A monoalphabetic substitution cipher made of little men displayed with legs and arms dancing.
Dancing Men Cipher - dCode
Tag(s) : Symbol Substitution
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Dancing Men Cipher
Dancing Men Decoder
Dancing Men Encoder
Answers to Questions (FAQ)
What is the Dancing Men Cipher? (Definition)
The story The Dancing Men is one of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Published in December 1903, the plot revolves around strange drawings of dancing men mysteriously found in a mansion. By studying these messages, Sherlock Holmes discovers that the drawings are in reality a code, each little character represents a letter.
How to encrypt using Dancing Men cipher?
The Dancing Men cipher is a substitution cipher for a letter to a dancing man. Each letter corresponds to a different humanoid symbol that dances.
| a | .png) | b | .png) | c | .png) | d | .png) | e | .png) | f | .png) | g | .png) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| h | .png) | i | .png) | j | .png) | k | .png) | l | .png) | m | .png) | n | .png) |
| o | .png) | p | .png) | q | .png) | r | .png) | s | .png) | t | .png) | u | .png) |
| v | .png) | w | .png) | x | .png) | y | .png) | z | .png) | ||||
| dCode.fr | |||||||||||||
Example: SHERLOCK translates to
In Conan Doyle's short story, Sherlock Holmes indicates that the cipher uses a flag in the dancing men's hand to indicate the division of the sentence into words. Indeed, there is no space in the ciphertexts present in the story. When a flag is present, it indicates the end of the word and the beginning of a next one. There is no flag at the end of a sentence.
In his short story, Conan Doyle used only 18 symbols because there were only 18 letters needed for his codes. 8 letters (FJKQUWXZ) were not used and therefore have no known symbols. Also the P and the V use almost exactly the same symbol in the short story. dCode presents on this page the most common complete variant on the Internet (source unknown) with the letters F, J, K, Q, U, W, X, 'Z ' (which were created) and the P and V are slightly differentiated.
How to decrypt Dancing Men cipher?
Decryption of Dancing Men consists is a substitution of a dancing man with a letter.
Some men sometimes have a flag, in the original short story they indicate a word separator (or word ending).
In the short story, Sherlock Holmes uses the method of frequency analysis to determine that it is a monoalphabetic substitution.
How to recognize Dancing Men ciphertext?
The ciphered message is constituted of cryptograms with men/stick figures dancing or moving and having specific positions of legs and arms (and sometimes a flag in the hand).
In the book, stickman symbols are described as absurd little figures dancing across the paper.
All references to Sherlock Holmes or the elementary Doctor Watson (who however does not appear in the short story) are clues.
The characters of Cubitt and Abe Slaney appear in the short story.
What are the variants of the Dancing Men cipher?
There is no known variant, but the management of flags is sometimes hazardous and does not always indicate the end of a word.
When was Dancing invented?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book has been published in 1903. The full stort is available here
Source code
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