Word.ws English Dictionary

onion routing

onion routing noun: a technique for anonymous communication over a computer network, the messages being repeatedly encrypted and sent through nodes called onion routers, each of which performs only one stage of the decryption.

Noun

onion routing (uncountable)

  1. A technique for anonymous communication over a computer network, the messages being repeatedly encrypted and sent through nodes called onion routers, each of which performs only one stage of the decryption.

Origin of onion routing

By analogy with the many layers of an onion.

Questions about onion routing

What does onion routing mean?
Onion routing means a technique for anonymous communication over a computer network, the messages being repeatedly encrypted and sent through nodes called onion routers, each of which performs only one stage of the decryption.
What part of speech is onion routing?
Onion routing is a noun.

Words near onion routing in the dictionary

  1. onion rings
  2. onion roll
  3. onion rolls
  4. onion router
  5. onion routers
  6. onion routing
  7. onion seed
  8. onion seeds
  9. onion service
  10. onion services
  11. onion skin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: onion routing (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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Cite this entry: “onion routing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/onion_routing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.