🔤 Six clues, one hidden word! Write the opposite of each clue, then read the circled first letters top to bottom. The answer key sits at the bottom — fold it backward along the dotted line before you start.
Write the opposite of each clue in the boxes (the box count is the answer length). The circled first letter of each answer, read down, spells the mystery word.
Write the opposite of each clue in the boxes. The circled first letter of every answer, read top to bottom, spells the mystery word.
Mystery Word
↑ fill these from the circled letters below
Not alive
Not poor
Not full
Not present
Not few
Not fast
✂ fold backward along this line to hide the solution ✂
Solution hidden on screen — it prints automatically.
Solution
Answers: DEAD · RICH · EMPTY · ABSENT · MANY · SLOW Mystery word: DREAMS — the circled first letters (D-R-E-A-M-S). A=1…Z=26 check: 4-18-5-1-13-19.
How to Solve This Puzzle
There's no cipher to crack here — this one is an antonym-and-acrostic hybrid. Here's the fastest way in:
Answer the easy ones first. "Not fast" and "Not few" are quick wins — lock those in before tackling the trickier clues.
Let the box count confirm your guess. Each clue's box count is the exact length of its antonym, so if your answer doesn't fit the boxes, it's the wrong word.
Build the mystery word as you go. Fill in each circled first letter as soon as you solve its row rather than waiting until the end — a few letters in, the mystery word often starts revealing itself before every clue is solved.
Stuck on one clue? Skip it and come back once more letters of the mystery word are in place — the partial word can point you back to the missing antonym. For more solving approaches, see our guide to solving cryptograms.
About This Puzzle
Antonym Acrostic is an acrostic, not a code: there's no cipher to crack at all. Instead, six clues each ask for the opposite of a simple word (not alive, not poor, not full, among them), and the first letter of every answer, circled and read down the page, spells out a separate mystery word once you're done.