n. [ L. crypta vault, crypt, Gr. kry`pth, fr. kry`ptein to hide. See Grot, Grotto. ] 1. A vault wholly or partly under ground; especially, a vault under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory. [ 1913 Webster ]

Priesthood works out its task age after age, . . . treasuring in convents and crypts the few fossils of antique learning. Motley. [ 1913 Webster ]

My knees are bowed in crypt and shrine. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Anat.) A simple gland, glandular cavity, or tube; a follicle; as, the crypts of Lieberkühn, the simple tubular glands of the small intestines. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to crypts. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. the science which studies methods to discovering the secret meaning of encrypted messages for which one does not possess the secret decoding information (called the key). [ PJC ]

2. the methods and procedures used to discover the secret meaning hidden in encrypted messages. [ PJC ]

{ } a. [ L. crypticus, Gr. kryptiko`s, fr. kry`ptein to hide. ] Hidden; secret; occult. “Her [ nature's ] more cryptic ways of working.” Glanvill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. incomprehensible to those not familiar with the culture or jargon; as, the new insurance policy is written without cryptic or mysterious terms.
Syn. -- inscrutable, mysterious, mystifying. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. having a secret or hidden meaning; as, cryptic symbols engraved in stone; cryptic writings.
Syn. -- cabalistic, occult, secret, sibylline. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. having a puzzling terseness; as, a cryptic note. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

4. not evident; unrecognized; as, a cryptic infection. [ PJC ]

5. written in a code or cipher; as, a cryptic message.
Syn. -- encoded, enciphered, encrypted. [ PJC ]

adv. Secretly; occultly; in a manner so as to hide or obscure meaning. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

n. [ Gr. krypto`s hidden. ] (Chem.) One of the quinoline bases, obtained from coal tar as an oily liquid, C11H11N; also, any one of several substances metameric with, and resembling, cryptidine proper. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. Gr. krypto`s hidden + L. branchia a gill. ] (Zool.) (a) A division of the Amphibia; the Derotremata. (b) A group of nudibranch mollusks. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Zool.) Having concealed or rudimentary gills. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a genus of cockroaches.
Syn. -- genus Cryptocercus. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. any plant of the genus Cryptocoryne; evergreen perennials growing in fresh or brackish water; tropical Asia.
Syn. -- water trumpet. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Gr. krypto`s hidden + E. crystalline. ] (Geol.) Indistinctly crystalline; -- applied to rocks and minerals, whose state of aggregation is so fine that no distinct particles are visible, even under the microscope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. cryptogame. See Cryptogamia. ] (Bot.) A plant belonging to the Cryptogamia. Henslow. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Cryptogamiæ [ NL., fr. Gr. krypto`s hidden, secret + ga`mos marriage. ] (Bot.) The series or division of flowerless plants, or those never having true stamens and pistils, but propagated by spores of various kinds. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The subdivisions have been variously arranged. The following arrangement recognizes four classes: -- I. Pteridophyta, or Vascular Acrogens. These include Ferns, Equiseta or Scouring rushes, Lycopodiaceæ or Club mosses, Selaginelleæ, and several other smaller orders. Here belonged also the extinct coal plants called Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, and Calamites. II. Bryophita, or Cellular Acrogens. These include Musci, or Mosses, Hepaticæ, or Scale mosses and Liverworts, and possibly Characeæ, the Stoneworts. III. Algæ, which are divided into Florideæ, the Red Seaweeds, and the orders Dictyoteæ, Oosporeæ, Zoosporeæ, Conjugatæ, Diatomaceæ, and Cryptophyceæ. IV. Fungi. The molds, mildews, mushrooms, puffballs, etc., which are variously grouped into several subclasses and many orders. The Lichenes or Lichens are now considered to be of a mixed nature, each plant partly a Fungus and partly an Alga. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One skilled in cryptogamic botany. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ a. Of or pertaining to the series Cryptogamia, or to plants of that series. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A cipher writing. Same as Cryptograph. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a genus sometimes placed in the family Polypodiaceae or Cryptogrammataceae.
Syn. -- genus Cryptogramma. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. one of a number of families into which the family Polypodiaceae has been subdivided in some classification systems.
Syn. -- family Cryptogrammataceae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Gr. krypto`s hidden + -graph: cf. F. cryptographe. ] Cipher; something written in cipher. “Decipherers of cryptograph.” J. Earle. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to cryptography; cryptographical. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who writes in cipher, or secret characters. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. one who studies methods for encoding and decoding messages; one who studies cryptography. [ PJC ]

{ } a. Relating to cryptography; written in secret characters or in cipher, or with sympathetic ink. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Cryptographer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. cryptographie. ] 1. The act or art of writing in code or secret characters; also, secret characters, codes or ciphers, or messages written in a secret code. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

2. The science which studies methods for encoding messages so that they can be read only by a person who knows the secret information required for decoding, called the key; it includes cryptanalysis, the science of decoding encrypted messages without possessing the proper key, and has several other branches; see for example steganography. [ PJC ]

n. [ Gr. krypto`s hidden + -logy. ] Secret or enigmatical language. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_; secret + &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_; name. ] A secret name; a name by which a person is known only to the initiated. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. krypto`s hidden + E. opium. ] (Chem.) A colorless crystalline alkaloid obtained in small quantities from opium. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. Gr. krypto`s hidden + o'yra` tail. ] (Zool.) An order of flying, dromæognathous birds, including the tinamous of South America. See Tinamou. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. to convert from a coded form into the original; -- of communications. Inverse of encrypt.
Syn. -- decode, decipher[ WE1 ]. [ PJC ]

v. t. To convert ordinary language or other data into code; to hide the meaning of a message by converting it into a form that cannot be interpreted without knowing the secret method for interpretation, called the key; to encode.
Syn. -- encode, code, encipher, cipher, cypher, inscribe, write in code. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. converted into a coded form that cannot be interpreted without knowing the secret method for interpretation, called the key; -- of messages or other forms of information.
Syn. -- encoded, coded, enciphered, ciphered, cyphered, written in code. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. the process of converting messages in ordinary language, or other information into a secret coded form that cannot be interpreted without knowing the secret method for interpretation, called the key. Encryption is used commonly to allow messages to be transmitted between parties at a distance without permitting others to read and understand the message. It is also used to make data more secure from possible discovery and uninterpretable by unauthorized people accessing the data. In order to read an encrypted message, a party normally requires knowledge of both the method of encryption and the secret key, which may be a single word or more complex sequence of characters. Until recently, transmission of such secret messages required that the key be transmitted secretly by some seecure and reliable method to the party receiving the message. More recently, a mathematical method was discovered to allow a party to publish an encoding key (the public key) which allows anyone to encode a message, but the message thus encoded can only be decoded by the person possessing a corresponding key, called the private key. This two-key system is called the public-key encryption method.
Syn. -- encoding, coding, enciphering, ciphering, cyphering, writing in code. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Holo- + Gr. kry`ptein to conceal. ] Wholly or completely concealing; incapable of being deciphered. [ 1913 Webster ]

Holocryptic cipher, a cipher so constructed as to afford no clew to its meaning to one ignorant of the key. [ 1913 Webster ]