Standard Lemma guide

cryptology

noun · 4 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.

  • UK: /kɹɪpˈtɒl.ə.dʒi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: /kɹɪpˈtɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
  • rhymes with -ɒlədʒi

1

noun

Meaning 1

The science or study of mathematical, linguistic, and other coding patterns and histories.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Examples

  • Meronyms: cryptography, cryptanalysis; encoding, decoding; encrypting, decrypting, decyphering

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The practice of analysing encoded messages, in order to decode them.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Examples

  • Near-synonyms: cryptanalysis, decoding, decrypting, decyphering

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cryptanalysis, decoding, decrypting, decyphering

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Secret or enigmatical language.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

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, cryptography

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: science, scientific discipline

History

Etymology

From crypto- + -logy, from Ancient Greek κρυπτός (kruptós, “hidden”) + λόγος (lógos, “word”); originally after Latin cryptologia, which is apparently first recorded in an English context.

Across languages

Translations

26 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: kryptologia — study
  • Finnish: salakirjoitustiede — study
  • Swedish: kryptologi — study
  • Bulgarian: криптология (kriptologija) — practice
  • Chinese Mandarin: 密碼學 /密码学 (mìmǎxué) — practice
  • Chinese Mandarin: 密码术 (mìmǎshù) — practice
  • Danish: kryptologi — practice
  • Estonian: krüptoloogia — practice
  • Finnish: kryptografia — practice
  • Finnish: salakirjoitustaito — practice
  • French: cryptologie — practice
  • Georgian: კრიპტოლოგია (ḳriṗṭologia) — practice
  • German: Kryptologie — practice
  • Icelandic: dulmálsfræði — practice
  • Italian: crittologia — practice
  • Japanese: 暗号学 (angōgaku) — practice
  • Khmer: រហស្សវិទ្យា (rea’hahsa’ vityie) — practice
  • Lithuanian: kriptologija — practice
  • Malay: kriptologi — practice
  • Polish: kryptologia — practice
  • Portuguese: criptologia — practice
  • Russian: криптоло́гия (kriptológija) — practice
  • Serbo-Croatian: kriptologija — practice
  • Spanish: criptología — practice
  • Swedish: kryptologi — practice
  • Finnish: salakieli — secret or enigmatical language