Word.ws English Dictionary

rainbow table

rainbow table noun: a table of surjective functions used to decrypt a text that was coded using a hash table.

rainbow table: a table of surjective functions used to decrypt a text that was coded using a hash table
Image: Dake, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

rainbow table (plural rainbow tables)

  1. A table of surjective functions used to decrypt a text that was coded using a hash table.

Forms of rainbow table

pluralrainbow tables

Origin of rainbow table

Coined by cryptanalyst Philippe Oechslin in 2003.

Questions about rainbow table

What does rainbow table mean?
Rainbow table means a table of surjective functions used to decrypt a text that was coded using a hash table.
What part of speech is rainbow table?
Rainbow table is a noun.
What is the plural of rainbow table?
The plural of rainbow table is rainbow tables.

Words near rainbow table in the dictionary

  1. rainbow slugs
  2. rainbow snake
  3. rainbow snakes
  4. rainbow surfperch
  5. rainbow surfperches
  6. rainbow table
  7. rainbow tables
  8. rainbow trout
  9. rainbow trouts
  10. rainbow unicorns
  11. rainbow washing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rainbow table (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: UK-rainbow_table.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rainbow table.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rainbow_table. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.