Human readable
message digest of a
public key in
cryptography. Often displayed as a
hexadecimal string.
The fingerprint is unique for each key, that is why it is called the fingerprint.
The well known cryptography application PGP uses the SHA-1 hash of you public key to calculate your key fingerprint.
Use this to verify the integrity of someones public key over the phone or in a face-to-face meeting. Only after verification the key should be trusted.
Example:
730D 9B3A F406 F28A 957D 6397 31E8 6D4C F193 26A9