dactylogram

/dækˈtɪləˌgræm/

Other forms: dactylograms

Dactylogram is a fancy way of saying "fingerprint." Your dactylograms are unique to you, like a signature you leave behind on everything you touch.

Dactyl means "digit," as in a finger or a toe. Cats with extra toes, for example, are called polydactyl. The root gram means "something written or drawn." Put the two together in the word dactylogram, and you have "an image of a digit" — in this case, a printed impression of the lines and ridges of a fingertip: a fingerprint. No two people's dactylograms, not even those of identical twins, are exactly alike, and so they can be used for identification when recorded and stored in a database.

Definitions of dactylogram

1. noun

   a print made by an impression of the ridges in the skin of a finger; often used for biometric identification in criminal investigations
   synonyms: fingerprint

   types:

   loop

   the basic pattern of the human fingerprint

   thumbprint

   fingerprint made by the thumb (especially by the pad of the thumb)

   type of:

   biometric authentication, biometric identification, identity verification

   the automatic identification of living individuals by using their physiological and behavioral characteristics

   mark, print

   a visible indication made on a surface