English

Fingerprint

Alternative forms

• finger-print

Noun

fingerprint ‎(plural fingerprints)

1. The unique natural pattern of ridges on the tips of the fingers.
2. The patterns left on surfaces where uncovered fingertips have touched.
3. (computing) Unique identification for public key in asymmetric cryptosystem.
4. A unique combination of features that serves as an identification of something.
   • 2008, Monika Waksmundzka-Hajnos, ‎Joseph Sherma, ‎& Teresa Kowalska, Thin Layer Chromatography in Phytochemistry, ISBN 1420046780, page 40:

     Most pharmacopoeial monographs of medicinal plants include TLC as method for identification based on a chromatographic fingerprint, which consists of a sequence of characteristic substance zones.

   • 2010, Christoph Steiner, Location Fingerprinting for Ultra-wideband Systems, ISBN 383252567X, page 9:

     The set of all location fingerprints and coordinates constitutes the location fingerprint database.

5. A trace that gives evidence of someone's involvement.
   • 1999, Arvin S. Gibson, Fingerprints of God, ISBN 0882906747, page 141:

     And continue to ask yourself the question, could the incredible complexity of the human body with its multitudinous specialized functions have come into being completely by chance or is it another fingerprint of God?

Hyponyms

• thumbprint

Derived terms

• fingerprint analysis
• fingerprint recognition

Translations

See also

• (computing): hash

Verb

fingerprint ‎(third-person singular simple present fingerprints, present participle fingerprinting, simple past and past participle fingerprinted)

1. (transitive) To take somebody's fingerprints.

   The jail staff fingerprints its 'guests' routinely

2. (transitive) To identify something uniquely by a combination of measurements.
   • 2004, Philip L. Hageman, Use of Short-Term (5-Minute) and Long-Term (18-Hour) Leaching Tests to Characterize, Fingerprint, and Rank Mine-Waste Material from Historical Mines in the Deer Creek, Snake River, and Clear Creek Watersheds in and around the Montezuma Mining District, Colorado, ISBN 1428984836, page 1:

     Analytical results from this combination of leach tests are tools that allow the investigator to quantify (fingerprint) which geochemical components could be expected in runoff from these piles if they were leached by a cloudburst...

   • 2006, Marina May Read, Focus on DNA Fingerprinting Research, ISBN 1594549532, page 30:

     A significant disadvantage of DNA fingerprinting that excludes conventional methods of population genetic analysis is an absence of genetic interpretation of hybridization fragment origin.

Translations

See also

• dactylography
• biometrics