Authentication

How to spell authentication

14 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce authentication

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does authentication mean?

1. nounThe process of proving that something or someone is genuine, valid, or correctly identified.

Authentication in a sentence

• The bank requires two-factor authentication before any large transfer.

• The gallery paid an expert for authentication of the disputed painting.

Where does authentication come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek authentikos, meaning 'genuine', 'original', or 'done by one's own hand', which was built on authentes, a person who acts on their own authority or even commits a deed with their own hands. The sense narrowed over time to describe something proved to be the real thing rather than a copy or forgery. Latin took the word as authenticus, and it passed through Old French into English in the late 1300s as 'authentic', meaning trustworthy or genuine. The verb 'authenticate', meaning to establish that something is true or real, appeared in the 1600s, and 'authentication' followed as the noun naming that act of proving genuineness. Today the digital age has given it a busy second life in computing, where it names the process of confirming a user's identity, yet the long string of unstressed syllables in the middle (the -then-ti-ca- run) is exactly where adult writers tend to slip.

How the word is built

• authent- (from Greek authentikos: genuine, real)
• -ic (adjective)
• -ate (verb)
• -ion (noun of action)