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

Google researchers previously warned that future quantum machines might break Bitcoin's cryptography with less effort than anticipated, urging a shift to post-quantum solutions. — Billy Bambrough, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026

Neither paper has been peer-reviewed, and the result concerns a specialized corner of quantum cryptography known as unclonable encryption. — Peter Hall, Scientific American, 31 July 2026

In the 1990s, side-channel attacks became especially important in cryptography, the science of protecting information. — Chetan Jaiswal, The Conversation, 30 July 2026

Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins professor and expert in cryptography, said the impressive thing about the discovery was its reliance on several existing methods that no one previously thought to put together. — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 29 July 2026

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

Rhymes for cryptography

• arthrography
• biography
• cartography
• cosmography
• demography
• discography
• echography
• ethnography
• filmography
• geography
• hydrography
• lithography

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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