passwords

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of password.

   The company forces employees to change their passwords every ninety days.

   Investigators found that thousands of leaked passwords were still in active use.

   Note

   A regular -s plural that covers both kinds of secret: the spoken word a sentry asks for before letting someone in, and the strings of characters typed to log in to a computer, a network or a game level. The same spelling also serves as the verb's present-tense form, so the sentence decides which one you are reading: users reset their passwords is the noun, and she passwords the file is the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of password.

   The accountant passwords every spreadsheet before emailing it to a client.

   Anyone who passwords a shared folder should give the rest of the office the code.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is always transitive: something has to be locked, so a direct object follows, as in she passwords the archive or the app passwords each note. Without that object, a reader will hear the noun plural instead. The subject is whoever sets the protection, whether a person or a program, and the meaning is to guard something with a password, not to know one or type one in.

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