countersign vs password

countersign

noun
  • The response to a sign or signal. 

  • A second signature added to a document to affirm the validity of the signature of the first person. 

verb
  • To sign on the opposite side of (a document). 

  • To add a second signature to a document, affirming the validity of the signature of another person. 

password

noun
  • A word relayed to a person to gain admittance to a place or to gain access to information. 

  • A string of characters used to log in to a computer or network, to access a level in a video game, and so on; archetypally a word but nowadays often an alphanumeric string or a phrase. 

verb
  • To protect with a password. 

How often have the words countersign and password occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )