cryptobabble

C3R1Y4P3T1O1B3A1B3B3L1E1

noun

Communication that is in code or encrypted, and therefore not comprehensible.

Scrabble 25

Meanings

nouncryptobabble (uncountable)
  1. uncountableCommunication that is in code or encrypted, and therefore not comprehensible.

    His mathbabble is as bad as his cryptobabble.

    2017 June 6, FromTheRafters, “VeeCrypt Encryption Scheme - Cryptanalysis.”, in sci.crypt (Usenet)
    3 more examples

    Just knowing that he has heard cryptobabble is enough to bring teams of assassins to Switzerland to silence the November Man, who had sworn off spywork to please Rita Macklin, his live-in lover.

    1986, Kirkus Reviews, page 1467

    Cryptobabble: How Encryption Export Disputes Are Shaping Free Speech for the New Millennium

    1998, The North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regilation

    The other day, this jackass cryptographer who sits next to me at work f-sound what looked like a p-p-password in an old Gmail message, mixed in with a bunch of cryptobabble.

    2016, Michael Byrnes, Bounty, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 348
  2. uncountableTechnical jargon or pseudolanguage that seems incomprehensible.

    The cryptobabble is four times as long as the message itself!

    1997 April 9, Christopher Gray, “Browser Offsets in Netscape”, in comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html (Usenet)
    5 more examples

    If the abbreviations begin to look like typical database cryptobabble, you needn’t bother with them, if you don’t mind typing in full sentences, which do approximate the mother tongue rather closely.

    1984 December 24, Henry F. Beechhold, “Condor Jr.: This file manager proves you can be good without being complicated”, in InfoWorld, volume 6, number 52, page 41

    I've noticed that a certain biostatistician that I occasionally work with always talks in similar cryptobabble with me.

    1991 October 30, Stephen Modena, “ask for help”, in bionet.biology.computational (Usenet)

    Like most scientific specialties, the sequence alignment field uses a technical vocabulary that it greatly helps to learn. This does not make it cryptobabble.

    1991 November 7, Michael Gribskov, “non-intersecting alignments”, in bionet.biology.computational (Usenet)

    Now, this may look like meaningless cryptobabble, but it is in fact very funny to adolescent geeks.

    1995, Aaron Weiss, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Protecting Yourself on the Internet, Que, page 244

    Permadi foresees victory for Megawati, framing his prediction in Nostradamus-like cryptobabble: “There will be disruptions and chaos before or after the elections,” he said in a Reuters interview.

    1999, The Skeptical Inquirer, page 12

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

cryptobabble. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptobabble

MLA

“cryptobabble.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptobabble. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cryptobabble,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptobabble.

Source: cryptobabble on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.