decoder ring
Message-cracking jewelry
A decoder ring is a toy ring with rotating elements that translate letters or numbers into secret messages, popular as children's prizes and cereal-box premiums in mid-20th-century America.
Figuratively, it refers to any key for understanding something obscure or cryptic: I need a decoder ring to follow this plot.
The phrase often carries nostalgic or ironic overtones.
- cryptogramCoded message puzzle
- secret messageCovert transmitted information
- radio dramaNarrative broadcast through speakers
- Little Orphan AnnieRedheaded comic strip waif
- secret agentClandestine government operative
encryption · key · memorabilia · substitution cipher · puzzle · detective story · novelty · keepsake · message · Ovaltine · trinket · gadget · spycraft · espionage · plaything · clue · treasure hunt · secret society
- codes and cipherscipher, decrypt, encrypt, ciphertext, plaintext
- espionagespy, spies, double agent, double agents, spying
- cryptic puzzlesriddle, cipher, cryptogram, enigma, puzzle
- secret codescipher, password, passphrase, cipher key, ciphers
- treasure huntstreasure, treasure chest, treasure map, clue, clues
- codebreaking toolsEnigma machine, cipher key, Colossus, codebook, decryption key
decoder ringscrambler
Device that jumbles signals
cipher · cryptograph · encryptor · encryption key · cipher machine
decoder ringobfuscator
One who confuses deliberately
red herring · smoke screen · disinformation · jargon · gobbledygook
decoder, ring, decode, decoding, decoded, decodes, code, codes, coded