Word.ws English Dictionary

cryptonymy

cryptonymy noun: the use of code names or cryptonyms.

Noun

cryptonymy (plural cryptonymies)

  1. The use of code names or cryptonyms.
    • The concepts of cryptonymy and preservative repression (the latter discussed directly below) stipulate the collapse of the revelatory properties of the symptom and language.1994, Nicolas Abraham, Maria Torok, Nicholas Thomas Rand, The Shell and the Kernel: Renewals of Psychoanalysis, →ISBN
    • In contradistinction to this view, Abraham and Torok's theory of cryptonymy construes the bar or sign of repression as an object of investigation that gives itself to be read.2014, Esther Rashkin, Family Secrets and the Psychoanalysis of Narrative, →ISBN, page 37

Forms of cryptonymy

pluralcryptonymies

Origin of cryptonymy

From crypto- + -onymy.

Questions about cryptonymy

What does cryptonymy mean?
Cryptonymy means the use of code names or cryptonyms.
What part of speech is cryptonymy?
Cryptonymy is a noun.
What is the plural of cryptonymy?
The plural of cryptonymy is cryptonymies.

Words near cryptonymy in the dictionary

  1. cryptonym
  2. cryptonymic
  3. cryptonymies
  4. cryptonymous
  5. cryptonyms
  6. cryptonymy
  7. cryptopatch
  8. cryptopatches
  9. cryptoperthite
  10. cryptoperthites
  11. cryptoperthitic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cryptonymy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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