Word.ws English Dictionary

steganography

UK/ˌstɛɡ.ənˈɒɡ.ɹə.fi//ˌstɛ.ɡəˈnɔ.ɡɹə.fi/

steganography noun: the art and science of concealing a secret message, data, or file within another innocuous message, image, audio file, or physical object in a way that hides the very existence of the hidden information from casual observation.

Noun

steganography (uncountable)

  1. The art and science of concealing a secret message, data, or file within another innocuous message, image, audio file, or physical object in a way that hides the very existence of the hidden information from casual observation.
    • She shewed me a short manuscript in French, where the great work was clearly explained. She told me that she did not keep it under lock and key, because it was written in a cypher, the secret of which was known only to herself. "You do not believe, then, in steganography."1894, Arthur Machen, transl., The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798, volume 11: Paris and Holland, translation of original by Giacomo Casanova
  2. The use of small computer files to communicate secret information.
    • Using the steganography tools available today, suspects can even hide data inside JPEGs and audio files.2005, Chris Davis, David Cowen, Aaron Philipp, Hacking Exposed Computer Forensics: Secrets & Solutions, McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN

Origin of steganography

From Ancient Greek στεγανός (steganós, “cover, roof”) + -graphy.

Questions about steganography

What does steganography mean?
Steganography means the art and science of concealing a secret message, data, or file within another innocuous message, image, audio file, or physical object in a way that hides the very existence of the hidden information from casual observation.
What part of speech is steganography?
Steganography is a noun.
How do you pronounce steganography?
Steganography is pronounced /ˌstɛɡ.ənˈɒɡ.ɹə.fi/ (UK).

Words near steganography in the dictionary

  1. steganographer
  2. steganographers
  3. steganographic
  4. steganographical
  5. steganographically
  6. steganography
  7. steganophony
  8. steganopod
  9. steganopodous
  10. steganopods
  11. Stegeman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: steganography (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-steganography.ogg.

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