cryptography

noun

cryp·​tog·​ra·​phy krip-ˈtä-grə-fē 

1

: secret writing

2

: the enciphering and deciphering of messages in secret code or cipher

also : the computerized encoding and decoding of information

3

: cryptanalysis

Did you know?

For a word having to do with secrets, cryptography has a surprisingly transparent origin. The word comes from Greek kryptós, meaning "hidden" or "secret," and graphein, meaning "to write." Besides the familiar related words of the same origin, such as cryptic, there is krypton, the name of a colorless gaseous element used especially in some fluorescent lamps and photography flashes. The name was chosen because the gas is rare and hard to find.

Examples of cryptography in a Sentence

Companies often use cryptography to protect private information.

Recent Examples on the Web

Post-quantum cryptography Advances in quantum computing will make many types of conventional cryptography unsafe by 2029, Gartner says. —Peter High, Forbes, 23 Oct. 2024

Large prime numbers can play a role in cryptography algorithms used to protect data in applications such as online banking and private messaging services, Vishwam Sankaran reports for the Independent. —Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024

So hackers typically don’t break the cryptography, at least when it’s properly implemented, but go around the cryptography. —Quanta Magazine, 1 Aug. 2024

On the security front, crypto-agile systems are better equipped to handle evolving cybersecurity threats compared to systems that rely on traditional cryptography. —Klaudia Zaika, Forbes, 23 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin cryptographia, from crypto- crypto- + -graphia -graphy

Note: New Latin cryptographia was perhaps first used by the Limburg-born philologist Erycius Puteanus (Eric de Put, Eric van den Putte, 1574-1646) in "Cryptographia epistolica, sive de clandestina scriptione," an addendum to his Epistolarum reliquiae centuria V (Leuven/Louvain, 1612). An apparently more widely circulated work using the word was Cryptomenytices et cryptographiae libri IX (Lüneburg, 1624) by Gustavus Selenus, pseudonym of Augustus the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1579-1666).

First Known Use

1646, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

cryptography

noun

cryp·​tog·​ra·​phy krip-ˈtäg-rə-fē 

: the coding and decoding of secret messages or digital information

cryptographer

-fər

noun