Arcane Lexicon · D&D 5e
Turn plain Common into a coded message. The same word always gives the same code, and you can translate it back.
Translations are reversible: paste one back, set it as the “From” language, and translate to Common to get the original text.
Turn any text, translated or plain, into a print-ready RPG handout: scrolls, decrees, wanted posters and more. From $5.
See the handout styles and how it works
It depends on the edition. In the 2014 5e rules, Thieves' Cant is a rogue feature: a secret mix of dialect, jargon and code that hides a message inside normal conversation, and passing a message this way takes four times as long as saying it plainly. The 2024 rules list it among the rare languages. Neither edition gives it a word list.
A passer-by hears a chat about the weather. Another rogue hears where the guards stand. Players still treat it like a language, and this site lists it with the secret languages, next to Druidic.
Real historical thieves' cant, the slang of old English criminals, is a different thing. This tool does not translate it.
The rules give you the idea of a code and no actual code, so we made one. Type English or Common, and the translator swaps each word for a short, invented one. The same word always gives the same result. A note you write today decodes the same way next month. A code word you give a player means one thing, every time.
These words are invented for the table. They come from no rulebook and from no real-world cant. Your guild can use them. The books do not.
Use it for the note your rogue passes in the tavern, the warning a fence whispers, or the chalk mark on a door.
Each line below was run through this translator. Type your own line into the box above to get more.
The 5e rules give no Thieves' Cant vocabulary, so these are made up for the table. Each was generated by the translator, and the same English word always gives the same code.
Copy the coded text. Paste it into the source box. Set “From Language” to Thieves' Cant and “To Language” to Common. Press Translate, and the original sentence comes back. The swap button does the same job in one click.
This works because each English word maps to exactly one coded word, so the process runs both ways. It decodes text made by this translator. It cannot decode cant from another tool, a book or a forum thread, because no shared dictionary exists.
Script. Thieves' Cant has no special alphabet here. The coded words are written in ordinary Common letters, so a note can sit in a pocket without anyone blinking at it. The tool's language entry reads “Common (coded)”.
Speakers. Rogues and thieves' guilds. At your table, add whoever fits: fences, smugglers, informants, the bartender who owes the guild a favor. These are ideas for your game, not rules.
Signs. Many tables add marks on doors, gutters and gate posts. That is a DM choice. You can name each sign with a short coded word from the translator.
Put your coded note on a handout
It depends on the edition. In the 2014 5e rules it is a rogue feature, a secret mix of dialect, jargon and code, and passing a message takes four times as long as plain speech. The 2024 rules list it among the rare languages. Neither edition gives it a word list.
In the 2014 rules, passing a message in Thieves' Cant takes four times as long as saying it plainly. This translator has no such delay. It is a written code for the table: you type a line, copy the coded result onto a note and hand it over.
No. Neither edition gives a word list, so these words are invented for your table; see the section on what this translator does. This site is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.