频率分析在数学、物理学和信号处理中是一种分解函数、波形、或者信号的频率组成，以获取频谱的方法。

在密码学中，频率分析是指研究字母或者字母组合在文本中出现的频率。应用频率分析可以破解古典密码。

频率分析基于如下原理：在任何一种书面语言中，不同的字母或字母组合出现的频率各不相同。而且，对于以这种语言书写的任意一段文本，都具有大致相同的特征字母分布。比如，在英语中，字母E出现的频率很高，而X则出现得较少。类似地，ST、NG、TH，以及QU等双字母组合出现的频率非常高，NZ、QJ组合则极少。英语中出现频率最高的12个字母可以简记为“ETAOIN SHRDLU”。

In cryptanalysis, frequency analysis is the study of the frequency of letters or groups of letters in a ciphertext. The method is used as an aid to breaking classical ciphers.

Frequency analysis is based on the fact that, in any given stretch of written language, certain letters and combinations of letters occur with varying frequencies. Moreover, there is a characteristic distribution of letters that is roughly the same for almost all samples of that language. For instance, given a section of English language, E, T, A and O are the most common, while Z, Q and X are rare. Likewise, TH, ER, ON, and AN are the most common pairs of letters (termed bigrams or digraphs), and SS, EE, TT, and FF are the most common repeats. The nonsense phrase "ETAOIN SHRDLU" represents the 12 most frequent letters in typical English language text.