What is referred to as the original form of a message before any encryption?

The original form of a message before any encryption is known as plaintext. Plaintext consists of readable text that has not been altered or transformed in any way, and it can be easily understood by anyone who has access to it.

In the context of cryptography, when a message is encrypted, the plaintext is converted into ciphertext, which is the transformed version of the message. Ciphertext is specifically designed to be unreadable without the proper key or method to decrypt it back to its original form. Enciphered text and encrypted message are terms that refer to the same concept as ciphertext, emphasizing that the text has undergone a transformation to secure it. Thus, plaintext is the foundational element in the encryption process, serving as the starting point that allows further cryptographic operations to take place.