cryptography

noun

cryp·​tog·​ra·​phy krip-ˈtä-grə-fē How to pronounce cryptography (audio)
1
: secret writing
2
: the enciphering and deciphering of messages in secret code or cipher
also : the computerized encoding and decoding of information
3

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 Proponents of the idea believe the fund could be tapped to support emerging technologies where there are high barriers of entry — including shipbuilding, emerging geothermal and nuclear fusion projects, and quantum cryptography. Alicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2024 Advanced cryptography and artificial intelligence are applied to consumer data that is first anonymized and then shared between a grocery retailer and a bank in a secure and neutral environment. Jon Jacobson, Forbes, 12 Sep. 2024 Later, in 1944, Australian troops discovered an entire Imperial Japanese Army cryptography library buried in a steel trunk at the bottom of a riverbed by retreating signalers. Tony Perrottet, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Sep. 2024 That means that practically all of quantum cryptography could remain secure even if every problem underpinning classical cryptography turned out to be easy. Ben Brubaker, WIRED, 30 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for cryptography 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cryptography.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of cryptography was in 1646

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Dictionary Entries Near cryptography

Cite this Entry

“Cryptography.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cryptography. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

cryptography

noun
cryp·​tog·​ra·​phy krip-ˈtäg-rə-fē How to pronounce cryptography (audio)
: the coding and decoding of secret messages or digital information
cryptographer
-fər
noun

More from Merriam-Webster on cryptography

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