authentication

noun

au·​then·​ti·​ca·​tion ə-ˌthen-ti-ˈkā-shən 

ȯ-

plural authentications

: an act, process, or method of showing something (such as an identity, a piece of art, or a financial transaction) to be real, true, or genuine : the act or process of authenticating something

Historically, the authentication of art fell to connoisseurs …

—Colette Bancroft

Encryption and decryption, combined with user authentication, ensure that only intended recipients read the messages.

—Sal Ricciardi

Mostly, notaries have to be adept at the authentication arts. In an era of multiple-personality disorder, cross-dressing, sex-change surgery and bogus IDs, people aren't always who they appear to be. On the notary public rests the responsibility to verify a person's true identity and attest to it.

—Colette Bancroft

Giving users a way to prove that they're being harassed with, say, a screenshot or some other form of authentication could help Twitter catch bad actors, even after they've covered their tracks.

—Issie Lapowsky

—often used before another noun

authentication codes

authentication techniques

authentication keys

Examples of authentication in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Turning on device authentication on your Galaxy or Pixel does not automatically enable it on another phone. — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 2 Nov. 2026

Attackers first exploited an admin authentication bypass to gain access, then used a separate SQL injection flaw to steal credentials and finally leveraged two additional issues to achieve remote code execution and plant a persistent web shell. — Rohit Dhamankar, Forbes.com, 30 Oct. 2026

The data was, as with many breaches like this, obtained by exploiting a vulnerability in a third-party authentication tool, in this case Okta, which has had its own share of security woes. — Alan Henry, PC Magazine, 30 Oct. 2026

The flaws could allow hackers to remotely execute malicious code on vulnerable servers without authentication. — Contessa Brewer, CNBC, 29 Oct. 2026

Word History

Etymology

authentic(ate) + -ation

First Known Use

1612, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing authentication

• multi-factor authentication
• two-factor authentication

Rhymes for authentication

• abbreviation
• abomination
• acceleration
• accentuation
• accommodation
• accreditation
• acculturation
• accumulation
• acetylation
• adjudication
• administration
• adulteration