cryptography

English

Etymology

From crypto- +‎ -graphy.

Pronunciation

• enPR: krĭptŏgʹrəfē, IPA^(key): [kɹ̥ɪpˈtʰɒɡɹəfiː], /kɹɪpˈtɒɡ.ɹə.fi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒɡɹəfi

Noun

cryptography (usually uncountable, plural cryptographies)

1. The discipline that embodies the principles, means, and methods for transforming data to hide its semantic content, prevent unauthorized use, or detect modifications, while also ensuring information security through confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and nonrepudiation.

   Holonym: cryptology

   Comeronym: cryptanalysis

   • 1658, Sir Thomas Browne (first use in English):

     We might abate...the strange cryptography of Gaffarell in his Starrie Booke of Heaven.

   • 2011 November 23, Benjamin Wallace, “The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin”, in Wired‎^[1], San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 January 2025:

     [A] man named Satoshi Nakamoto posted a research paper to an obscure cryptography listserv describing his design for a new digital currency that he called bitcoin.

Usage notes

• Subfields include encoding, decoding, cryptanalysis, codes, ciphers, etc.
• In many languages, though less so in English, cognates to cryptology are also used with the meaning given above, and even preferred.
• Related to cryptography but distinct, steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no-one apart from the sender and intended recipient even realizes there is a hidden message.

Derived terms

• anticryptography
• asymmetric cryptography
• cryptographic
• elliptic-curve cryptography
• public-key cryptography
• quantum cryptography

Related terms

• crypt
• cryptanalysis
• cryptographer
• cryptology

Translations

discipline concerned with communication security

• Asturian: criptografía f
• Belarusian: крыптагра́фія f (kryptahráfija)
• Bulgarian: криптография f (kriptografija)
• Catalan: criptografia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 密碼學 / 密码学 (zh) (mìmǎxué)

• Cornish: kelskrifonieth f
• Czech: kryptografie (cs) f
• Danish: kryptografi
• Dutch: cryptografie (nl) n, geheimschrift (nl) f
• Esperanto: kriptografio
• Finnish: kryptografia (fi), salakirjoitustaito
• French: cryptographie (fr) f
• Galician: criptografía (gl) f
• Georgian: კრიპტოგრაფია (ḳriṗṭograpia)
• German: Kryptographie (de) f
• Greek: κρυπτογραφία (el) f (kryptografía)
• Hindi: गूढ़लेखन m (gūṛhlekhan)
• Hungarian: kriptográfia (hu)
• Icelandic: dulritunarfræði f
• Indonesian: kriptografi (id)
• Irish: cripteagrafaíocht f
• Italian: crittografia (it) f
• Japanese: 暗号論 (angōron)
• Korean: 암호학(暗號學) (amhohak)
• Latvian: kriptogrāfija f
• Macedonian: криптографија f (kriptografija)
• Persian: رمزنگاری (fa) (ramz-negâri)
• Polish: kryptografia (pl) f
• Portuguese: criptografia (pt) f
• Romanian: criptografie (ro) f
• Russian: криптогра́фия (ru) f (kriptográfija)
• Spanish: criptografía (es) f
• Swedish: kryptografi (sv) c
• Ukrainian: криптогра́фія (uk) f (kryptohráfija)
• Yiddish: קריפּטאָגראַפֿיע f (kriptografye)

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of cryptography