Cipher

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ci + pher
• IPA: /ˈsaɪfÉ™/
• Rhymes: -aɪfÉ™(r)

Alternative forms

• cypher, less common than cipher but still in use in English. see The Ultra Secret by F. W. Winterbotham, the cypherpunk movement, weapon, and consider the 's series of Cyphers (Nr 1, Nr 2, Nr 3, ...) before and into WWII.

Origin

14th century. From Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic صفر (sifr, "zero, empty"), from صفر (safara, "to be empty"). Compare zero.

Full definition of cipher

Noun

1. A numeric character.
2. Any text character.
• Sir Walter RaleighThis wisdom began to be written in ciphers and characters and letters bearing the forms of creatures.
3. A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name; a device; a monogram.a painter's cipher, an engraver's cipher, etc.
4. 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.
• Bishop BurnetHis father ... engaged him when he was very young to write all his letters to England in cipher.
5. (cryptography) A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters or sequences of bits into ciphertext.
6. Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher.The message is clearly a cipher, but I can't figure it out.
7. 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. A design of interlacing initials: a decorative design consisting of a set of interlaced initials.
9. (music) A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.
10. A hip-hop jam session http://www.rapdict.org/Cipher
11. The path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking.
12. Someone or something of no importance.
• Washington IrvingHere he was a mere cipher.
13. (obsolete) Zero.

Synonyms

• (numeric character) number, numeral
• (method for concealing the meaning of text) code
• (cryptographic system using an algorithm)
• (ciphertext)
• (a grouping of three digits in a number, especially when delimited)
• (design of interlacing initials) monogram
• (fault in an organ valve causing a pipe to sound continuously)
• (hip-hop jam session)
• (path that shared cannabis takes through a group)
• (someone or something of no importance) person: nobody, nonentity; thing nonentity, nothing, nullity
• (obsolete: zero) naught/nought, nothing, oh, zero

Derived terms

• ciphertext
• cypherpunk
• cypherparty
• decipher
• encipher

Related terms

• zero

Verb

1. (regional, dated) To calculate.I never learned much more than how to read and cipher.
• 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. IX, Abbot SamsonFor the mischief that one blockhead, that every blockhead does, in a world so feracious, teeming with endless results as ours, no ciphering will sum up.