cryptographer

noun

cryp·​tog·​ra·​pher krip-ˈtä-grə-fər How to pronounce cryptographer (audio)
: a specialist in cryptography: such as
a
: a clerk who enciphers and deciphers messages
b
: one who devises cryptographic methods or systems

Examples of cryptographer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Created by Open Whisper Systems and later championed by the nonprofit Signal Foundation, Signal emerged as the brainchild of cryptographer Moxie Marlinspike. Tony Bradley, Forbes.com, 28 Mar. 2025 For 35 years, amateur and professional cryptographers have tried to crack the code on Kryptos, a majestic sculpture that sits behind CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Steven Levy, WIRED, 7 Mar. 2025 But as cryptographers laid the mathematical foundations for this approach to information security in the 1980s, a few researchers discovered that computational hardness wasn’t the only way to safeguard secrets. Ben Brubaker, WIRED, 30 June 2024 The master cryptographer secured a meeting with the director of the Military Intelligence Corps and successfully petitioned to have the agency rolled into a permanent peacetime entity funded by the State Department and the War Department. Peter Zablocki, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for cryptographer

Word History

First Known Use

1641, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cryptographer was in 1641

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Cite this Entry

“Cryptographer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cryptographer. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.

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