Standard Lemma guide

cryptography

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • krĭptŏgʹrəfē
  • [kɹ̥ɪpˈthɒɡɹəfiː]
  • /kɹɪpˈtɒɡ.ɹə.fi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒɡɹəfi

1

noun

Meaning 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.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Examples

  • Holonym: cryptology

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

act of writing in code or cipher

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: coding, secret writing, steganography

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: writing, committal to writing

Narrower terms: encoding, encryption, recoding, decoding, decryption, decipherment

3

noun

Meaning 3

the science of analyzing and deciphering codes and ciphers and cryptograms

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cryptanalysis, cryptanalytics, cryptology

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: science, scientific discipline

History

Etymology

From crypto- + -graphy.

Across languages

Translations

40 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Asturian: criptografía — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Belarusian: крыптагра́фія (kryptahráfija) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Bulgarian: криптография (kriptografija) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Catalan: criptografia — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Chinese Mandarin: 密碼學 /密码学 (mìmǎxué) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Cornish: kelskrifonieth — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Czech: kryptografie — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Danish: kryptografi — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Dutch: cryptografie — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Dutch: geheimschrift — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Esperanto: kriptografio — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Finnish: kryptografia — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Finnish: salakirjoitustaito — discipline concerned with communication security
  • French: cryptographie — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Galician: criptografía — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Georgian: კრიპტოგრაფია (ḳriṗṭograpia) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • German: Kryptographie — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Greek: κρυπτογραφία (kryptografía) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Hindi: गूढ़लेखन (gūṛhlekhan) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Hungarian: kriptográfia — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Icelandic: dulritunarfræði — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Indonesian: kriptografi — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Irish: cripteagrafaíocht — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Italian: crittografia — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Japanese: 暗号論 (angōron) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Korean: 암호학 (amhohak) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Latvian: kriptogrāfija — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Macedonian: криптографија (kriptografija) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Malayalam: ഗൂഢശാസ്ത്രം (gūḍhaśāstraṁ) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Persian: رمزنگاری (ramz-negâri) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Polish: kryptografia — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Portuguese: criptografia — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Romanian: criptografie — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Russian: криптогра́фия (kriptográfija) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Serbo-Croatian: криптографија — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Serbo-Croatian: kriptografija — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Spanish: criptografía — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Swedish: kryptografi — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Ukrainian: криптогра́фія (kryptohráfija) — discipline concerned with communication security
  • Yiddish: קריפּטאָגראַפֿיע (kriptografye) — discipline concerned with communication security
Real reading context

cryptography in complete knowledge articles