Chopping something (like meat or vegetables) into small pieces, or in computing, converting data into a fixed-length code for security and organization.
Present participle of 'hash,' from Old French 'hachier' meaning to chop or hack. In computing, the term was adopted metaphorically in the 1970s because the process scrambles data similarly to how chopping scrambles ingredients.
Computer hashing is basically a one-way blender for data—you put information in and get a scrambled code out, but you can never reconstruct the original data from that code, which is why passwords are stored as hashes rather than the actual passwords.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.