steganography
/ˌstɛɡ.ənˈɒɡ.ɹə.fi/
steganography means the art and science of concealing a secret message, data, or file within another innocuous message, image, audio file, or physical object in a way that hides the very existence of the hidden information from casual observation. It carries an Arena rating of 1443, earned across 10 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, steganography ranks #469 of 17,130 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,060 of 17,150 for Funniest Words, #3,613 of 17,137 for Most Exacting Words, #3,683 of 17,125 for Most Incisive Words.
steganography is pronounced /ˌstɛɡ.ənˈɒɡ.ɹə.fi/.
Why “steganography” is a great word
The art of concealing information within an innocuous carrier so the very fact of communication remains undetected. From Ancient Greek στεγανός (steganós, "covered, concealed") and -γραφία (-graphía, "writing, recording"), first recorded in English in the 1560s from Medieval Latin *steganographia*. Unlike cryptography, which scrambles a message’s content to render it unreadable, or watermarking, which boldly asserts ownership, steganography is the art of the ghost—hiding the message’s very existence. It is a love note written in lemon juice between the lines of a mundane shopping list, a confidential map encoded in the pixel-shade variations of a holiday snapshot, or a whispered secret buried in the static of a radio broadcast. The safest secret is the one no one thinks to look for.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek στεγανός (steganós, “cover, roof”) + -graphy.
noun
- The art and science of concealing a secret message, data, or file within another innocuous message, image, audio file, or physical object in a way that hides the very existence of the hidden information from casual observation.
- The use of small computer files to communicate secret information.
Words closest in meaning
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