The word “encrypted” is often used as shorthand for everything a secure connection does. A clearer explanation starts with three separate questions. Keeping them separate helps when reading a browser's connection information or deciding what a security indicator can reasonably promise.
Who is at the other end?
For a typical HTTPS connection, the browser checks the server's certificate against the requested hostname and its trust rules. The handshake also requires the server to prove control of the certificate's associated credentials. A certificate for a different hostname does not answer the browser's question.
This is why the name in the address bar matters. A secure connection to a misleadingly named site is still a connection to that site.
Who can read the conversation?
TLS protects application data in transit between its endpoints. An observer on the path should not be able to read the protected HTTP content. The endpoints themselves can still read it, and traffic patterns or other connection metadata may remain visible.
The boundary is worth stating plainly: transport protection covers a connection. It does not decide how the receiving application stores, uses, or shares the information afterward.
Could the content change on the way?
TLS also provides integrity protection, so alterations to protected records can be detected. Confidentiality and integrity work together: hiding content would be much less useful if an intermediary could quietly replace it.
RFC 8446's introduction describes authentication, confidentiality, and integrity as the central properties of the TLS 1.3 channel.
Read the indicator at the right scale
An HTTPS indicator is useful evidence about a connection. It is not a review of the site's claims, the quality of its software, or the intentions of its operator. Those questions need their own evidence.
A practical habit is to name the property you are checking. “The hostname matches” is clearer than “the certificate looks fine.” “The connection protects the content in transit” is clearer than “everything is secure.” Precise language makes both explanations and troubleshooting less slippery.