password

Etymology

pass + word; the sentry-passing sense predates the cryptographic sense and was its inspiration.

noun

1. (military, security) A word relayed to a person to gain admittance to a place or to gain access to information.
   Only if a would-be visitor knew the password du jour could he pass; the guards allowed no exceptions.
2. (computing, cryptography) A string of characters used to log in to a computer or network, to access a level in a video game, and so on; archetypally a word but nowadays often an alphanumeric string or a phrase.
   A strong password has a mixture of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.

verb

1. (computing, transitive) To protect with a password.