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Cipher

//ˈsaɪfə// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A numeric character.
  2. 2
    a message written in a secret code wordnet
  3. 3
    Any text character.

    "In ſucceeding times this vnderſtanding wiſedome began to be written in Ciphers, and Characters, and letters bearing the forme of beaſtes, birds, and other creatures; […]"

  4. 4
    a secret method of writing wordnet
  5. 5
    A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name.

    "a painter's cipher"

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  1. 6
    a person of no influence wordnet
  2. 7
    A method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning.

    "The message was written in a simple cipher. Anyone could figure it out."

  3. 8
    a quantity of no importance; thing (object:), singular, negative pronoun; pronoun, thing, singular; quantifier: negative existential wordnet
  4. 9
    A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters or sequences of bits into ciphertext.

    "a public-key cipher"

  5. 10
    a mathematical element that when added to another number yields the same number wordnet
  6. 11
    Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher.

    "The message is clearly a cipher, but I can't figure it out."

  7. 12
    A grouping of three digits in a number, especially when delimited by commas or periods

    "The probability is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 — a number having five ciphers of zeros."

  8. 13
    A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.
  9. 14
    A hip-hop jam session. slang

    "They say no girls in the cipher, so I rock solo"

  10. 15
    The path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking. slang

    "As the night seemed darker, cops is on a hunt / They interrupt your cipher, and crush your blunt"

  11. 16
    Someone or something of no importance.

    "There he was a mere cypher: here he was lord of the ascendant; the choice spirit, the dominant genius."

  12. 17
    Zero. dated

    "O pardon: ſince a crooked Figure may / Atteſt in little place a Million, / And let vs, Cyphers to this great Accompt, / On your imaginarie Forces worke."

Verb
  1. 1
    To calculate. dated, intransitive, regional

    "I never learned much more than how to read and cipher."

  2. 2
    make a mathematical calculation or computation wordnet
  3. 3
    To write in code or cipher. intransitive
  4. 4
    convert ordinary language into code wordnet
  5. 5
    Of an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ. intransitive
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    To decipher. obsolete

    "Yea the illiterate that know not how To cipher what is writ in learned bookes, VVill cote my lothſome treſpaſſe in my lookes."

Etymology

Etymology 1

14th century. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “zero, empty”), from صَفَرَ (ṣafara, “to be empty”). Doublet of chiffre and zero. Sense 8 (a fault in an organ valve) may be a different word.

Etymology 2

14th century. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “zero, empty”), from صَفَرَ (ṣafara, “to be empty”). Doublet of chiffre and zero. Sense 8 (a fault in an organ valve) may be a different word.

See also for "cipher"

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