cryptology
nounUK /kɹɪpˈtɒl.ə.dʒi/ · US /kɹɪpˈtɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
Etymology From crypto- + -logy, from Ancient Greek κρυπτός (kruptós, “hidden”) + λόγος (lógos, “word”); originally after Latin cryptologia, which is apparently first recorded in an English context.
1
Usually The science or study of mathematical, linguistic, and other coding patterns and histories.
- Meronyms: cryptography, cryptanalysis; encoding, decoding; encrypting, decrypting, decyphering
2
Usually The practice of analysing encoded messages, in order to decode them.
- Near-synonyms: cryptanalysis, decoding, decrypting, decyphering
3
Usually Secret or enigmatical language.
- But the question of speech-play causes confusion to the slang researcher because this subject borders on family slang, private lingo, secret language, cryptologies, disguised language of children and grown-ups1991, English Studies:
- Derived terms
- cryptex, cryptologic, cryptological, cryptologically
- Related terms
- cryptography, cryptanalysis, ciphertext, plaintext, cleartext, code, key