public key
noun
a message encryption key available to anyone, allowing the resulting encrypted messages to be decrypted only when paired with a private key known only to the message recipient.
public keys
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pluralof public key.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Up to 6.9 million Bitcoin are vulnerable as their public keys are already exposed, allowing quantum systems to crack them anytime.
From Barron's ● Apr. 1, 2026
But since then, mathematicians have developed methods for encryption using public keys.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 12, 2023
It would be mathematically very viable that only the citizens receive and that they did receive because I have the public keys of pretty much everyone in the country.
From The Verge ● May 24, 2022
To overcome the problems of large public keys that could be used only once, Merkle proposed43, 44 to combine 2k public keys into one which can then be used to verify all 2k signatures.
From Nature ● Sep. 12, 2017
That's where the idea of public keys comes in.
From Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
