# Mnemonic

## Definition

In cryptocurrency wallets, a mnemonic is a human-readable sequence of words used to represent recovery information; BIP-39 is a common standard for this kind of mnemonic sentence.

## What it means in practice

The term is often used interchangeably with seed phrase or recovery phrase, although technically the mnemonic words and the binary seed derived from them are different objects.

## How this concept appears in Terenval Wallet

Terenval's create/import experience uses common mnemonic-style recovery phrases, with the sensitive phrase handled locally on the user's device.

**Important:** Treat a mnemonic as a high-value secret, even if it looks like an ordinary list of words.

**[Install Terenval Wallet](https://wallet.terenval.com/?lang=en)**

## Related terms

- [Seed phrase](https://wallet.terenval.com/glossary/seed-phrase/)
- [Recovery phrase](https://wallet.terenval.com/glossary/recovery-phrase/)
- [BIP-39](https://wallet.terenval.com/glossary/bip-39/)
- [Wallet passphrase](https://wallet.terenval.com/glossary/wallet-passphrase/)
- [Wallet backup](https://wallet.terenval.com/glossary/wallet-backup/)

## Related Terenval Answers

- [What Is a Crypto Wallet and What Does It Actually Store?](https://wallet.terenval.com/answers/what-is-a-crypto-wallet-and-what-does-it-store/)
- [Custodial vs Non-Custodial Wallets: What Is the Difference?](https://wallet.terenval.com/answers/custodial-vs-non-custodial-wallets/)
- [Hot Wallet vs Cold Wallet: Which One Should You Use?](https://wallet.terenval.com/answers/hot-wallet-vs-cold-wallet/)

## Sources and review

- [Terenval Wallet security model](https://wallet.terenval.com/info/security/)
- [Ethereum.org — wallets](https://ethereum.org/en/wallets/)
- [BIP-39](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039.mediawiki)

Published by Terenval. Technical review: Terenval Wallet team. Last reviewed: 2026-10-02. Terenval product statements are first-party information.

Official page: https://wallet.terenval.com/glossary/mnemonic/

[Machine-oriented Terenval index](https://wallet.terenval.com/llms.txt)