plaintext
noun
plain·text
ˈplān-ˌtekst 
: the intelligible form of an encrypted text or of its elements compare ciphertext
Examples of plaintext in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
At least not in the context of aggregated criminal databases containing 16 billion login credentials, or even the recent news of 184 million plaintext passwords found online.
—
Davey Winder, Forbes.com, 30 July 2025
Each record included an ID tag for the type of account, a URL for each website or service, and then usernames and plaintext passwords.
—Matt Burgess, Wired News, 22 May 2025
Microsoft also seems to have fixed the single largest problem with Recall: previously, all screenshots and the entire text database were stored in plaintext with zero encryption.
—ArsTechnica, 21 Apr. 2025
Centralized Secrets Storage • Use a dedicated secrets management vault such as HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager or Azure Key Vault.
• Avoid storing credentials in plaintext files, environment variables or source code repositories.
2.
—Srikanth Mandru, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
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Davey Winder, Forbes.com, 30 July 2025
Each record included an ID tag for the type of account, a URL for each website or service, and then usernames and plaintext passwords.
—Matt Burgess, Wired News, 22 May 2025
Microsoft also seems to have fixed the single largest problem with Recall: previously, all screenshots and the entire text database were stored in plaintext with zero encryption.
—ArsTechnica, 21 Apr. 2025
Centralized Secrets Storage • Use a dedicated secrets management vault such as HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager or Azure Key Vault.
• Avoid storing credentials in plaintext files, environment variables or source code repositories.
2.
—Srikanth Mandru, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for plaintext
Cite this Entry
“Plaintext.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plaintext. Accessed 6 Sep. 2025.
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