codeword

From code +‎ word.

codeword (plural codewords)

1. (cryptography) A string representing an encoded piece of text.

   Bob cannot get any information out of the codeword since he doesn't know what transmission bases Alice used.

2. A word or phrase (or by extension a concept) used to make a (concealed) reference to another word or concept.

   Synonym: dogwhistle

   • 1984 February 4, Michael Bronski, “Cats: Straight and Boring”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 17:

     While all the cats are frolicking and singing, the aging Grizabella cat, noted once for her glamour, keeps wandering onstage and singing bits of "Memory." The other cats shun her as a pariah, an outcast. Dressed in rags, looking pathetic, it's clear that her only sin was once being "glamorous," which I think is a code word for sexual.

   • 1993, The Economist:

     Even the most virtuous concepts were scrutinised by governments eager to interpret them as codewords for something unwelcome.

   • 2007, Rough Guides, The Rough Guide to the Energy Crisis, UK: Rough Guides, →ISBN, page 194:

     El Niño has hit the headlines as a codeword for bad weather, especially in the Pacific and California. But there is a little more to it than that.

   • 2013, Paul Vallely, Pope Francis: Untying the Knots, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 379:

     The Catholic Church has had problems in the past with fluid notions of gender, most particularly at the United Nations where some groups have used gender as a codeword for reproductive health rights which are deemed to include abortion.

3. A type of crossword puzzle where the letters of the alphabet are represented by numbers and the solver must identify them by their position and frequency.

• pseudocodeword

• alphametic
• cryptarithm