Encipherment

/ɛnˈsaɪ.fər.mənt/ noun

Definition

The act, process, or result of enciphering a message; the application of a cipher to create a secret code.

Etymology

From 'encipher' plus the noun suffix '-ment', which means 'the act or result of'. This suffix is used to create nouns from verbs (like 'pay' becomes 'payment').

Kelly Says

The history of encipherment is basically the history of spying and government secrets—from Julius Caesar using simple letter-shift codes to break enemy communications, to the Enigma machine in World War II, to today's quantum encryption that might make even current codes obsolete.

Related Words

Explore More Words

Get the Word Orb API

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