encrypt

[en-kript]

verb (used with object)

to encipher or encode.

Origin of encrypt

1940–45; en-¹ + -crypt (abstracted from cryptic, cryptography, etc.), modeled on encode

Related formsen·cryp·tion, en·cryp·ta·tion, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for encryption

Contemporary Examples of encryption

Snowden contacted Poitras in mid-January 2013 after failing to connect with Greenwald due to his lack of encryption.
Laura Poitras on Snowden's Unrevealed Secrets
Marlow Stern
December 1, 2014
And then Glenn finally got on encryption, came on a plane to New York, and off we went.
Laura Poitras on Snowden's Unrevealed Secrets
Marlow Stern
December 1, 2014
With the Assange movie, there are sequences like the [Vincente] Minnelli-like visual explorations of an encryption system.
Can Condon's Freak Show Win Broadway?
Tim Teeman
November 18, 2014
In November 2013, well before U.S. bombs started falling, “ISIS did launch a Web-based encryption tool,” Ahlberg said.
ISIS Keeps Getting Better at Dodging U.S. Spies
Shane Harris, Noah Shachtman
November 14, 2014
Bloomberg even reported that the NSA did know and had been exploiting the mistake in encryption.
The NSA Shouldn’t Stockpile Web Glitches
Richard Clarke, Peter Swire
April 18, 2014

British Dictionary definitions for encryption

encrypt

verb (tr)

to put (a message) into code

to put (computer data) into a coded form

to distort (a television or other signal) so that it cannot be understood without the appropriate decryption equipment

Derived Formsencrypted, adjectiveencryption, noun

Word Origin for encrypt

C20: from en- 1 + crypt, as in crypto-

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for encryption

encrypt

1975 in computer sense, from en- (1) + crypt (see crypto-). Related: Encrypted; encrypting; encryption.

encryption in Science

encrypt

[ĕn-krĭpt]

To alter information using a code or mathematical algorithm so as to be unintelligible to unauthorized readers.

encryption in Culture

encryption

The process of encoding a message so that it can be read only by the sender and the intended recipient. Encryption systems often use two keys, a public key, available to anyone, and a private key that allows only the recipient to decode the message. (See also cryptography.)