Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A word or name that is used secretly to refer to another; a code name or code word.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A private, secret, or hidden name; a name which one bears in some society or brotherhood.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A secret name; a name by which a person is known only to the initiated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A secret name, a code name.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

crypto- + -onym

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Examples

  • [11] A cryptonym is a combination of a two-letter digraph, which are either free-standing (e.g.,

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008

  • [11] A cryptonym is a combination of a two-letter digraph, which are either free-standing (e.g.,

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008

  • [11] A cryptonym is a combination of a two-letter digraph, which are either free-standing (e.g.,

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008

  • Alex was the cryptonym for Colonel Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky of the GRU, a man who had provided the British and American intelligence services with information beyond price.

    Final Resting Place of The Pen 2010

  • The agent's cryptonym was Night Stock, and his real name was Marcel Tiraque.

    Final Resting Place of The Pen 2010

  • The Hypermarket material was straightforward. just as Oleg Penkovsky had slandered the Railton name, by directly suggesting that his cover was blown by an agent of influence working under the cryptonym Dionysus, so Blunt had, in a couple of sentences during one of the recent interrogation sessions, provided back-up mentions.

    Final Resting Place of The Pen 2010

  • By the end of 1935 he was fully operational, with the cryptonym Dionysus.

    Final Resting Place of The Pen 2010

  • It was not the mark of the infamous “Mendez”, but some newcomer with the lame cryptonym of “Radar”.

    Approaching grumpy old man status | Letter Never Sent 2005

  • Once, sixteen tempo engineers, summarily banished to Asia Minor, decided to build a time main to escape, under the guise of constructing some sort of tower or dome; the name given to it was the cryptonym-password of their plot Banished Asian Builder's Escape League.

    Archive 2001-04-01 Torill 2001

  • Once, sixteen tempo engineers, summarily banished to Asia Minor, decided to build a time main to escape, under the guise of constructing some sort of tower or dome; the name given to it was the cryptonym-password of their plot Banished Asian Builder's Escape League.

    thinking with my fingers Torill 2001

Comments

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  • Code name.

    March 3, 2007

  • Also, a code word, once removed, i.e., a code word that secretly refers to another code word.

    March 5, 2007

  • When life becomes pallid and grim

    Enhance it by wit and by whim.

    Give a glamorous sheen

    To your daily routine

    By adopting a deep cryptonym.

    June 10, 2015