
Introduction to information t heory 89
4.5 Glossary
Absolute rate. The base 2 logarithm of the number of symbols used for a
language.
Conditional entropy. The entropy of an outcome that is conditional on
another outcome.
Digram, trigram, n-gram. A group of two, three, or n letters in a text.
Entropy. A measure of the uncertainty o f an outcome.
Perfect secrecy. The condition of a ciphertext providing no informatio n
about the plaintext.
Redundancy. The difference between the absolute rate and the entropy.
Unicity distance. For a cipher, the amount of ciphertext required to obtain
a unique plaintext.
Exercises
Review Questions
1. List the fo llowing in order ...