Cryptography

/krɪpˈtɒɡrəfi/ noun

Definition

The art of writing or solving codes — the science of keeping secrets from everyone except the intended recipient.

Etymology

From Greek kryptos (hidden) + graphein (to write). Julius Caesar used a simple cipher (shifting letters). Today's encryption protects trillions of dollars using mathematics that even quantum computers struggle to crack.

Kelly Says

Julius Caesar encrypted his messages by shifting each letter three positions. Two thousand years later, we encrypt the entire internet using prime numbers so large that all the computers on Earth working together could not factor them. The art of secrecy scaled with civilization.

Translations

ESEspañol
criptografía
PTPortuguês
criptografia
ZH中文
密码学
ARالعربية
تشفير
FRFrançais
cryptographie
SWKiswahili
usimbaji
HIहिन्दी
कूटलेखन
JA日本語
暗号学

Related Words

Explore More Words

Get the Word Orb API

Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.