cipher

noun

1. 1

   A numeric character.

2. 2

   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; […]

3. 3

   A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name.

   a painter's cipher

   an engraver's cipher

   Just then, an attendant to whom the Queen had whispered returned; and taking a small case from her hand, Anne produced a bracelet somewhat similar to the very one with which Francesca had parted, excepting that it had her cipher, surrounded by a wreath of fleurs-de-lis. "Louis, will you offer this to Mademoiselle Carrara?"

4. 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.

5. 5

   A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters or sequences of bits into ciphertext.

   a public-key cipher

6. 6

   Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher.

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

7. 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. 8

   A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.

9. 9

   slangA hip-hop jam session.

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

10. 10

    slangThe path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking.

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

11. 11

    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. 12

    datedZero.

    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.

    Firſt, Find what Decimal of a Pound .625 will Repreſent, which is eaſily done if you prepone a Cypher, and half the Number is the Decimal of a Pound. The Number with a Cypher preponed is .0625, ½ is .03125.

    We saw earlier about this new symbol, the cipher, that can make numbers big.

verb

1. 1

   datedTo calculate.

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

   For 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.

   So I must baffle at the hint / And cipher at the sign, / And make much blunder, if at last / I take the clew divine.

   Can you cipher too—along with your reading and writing?

2. 2

   To write in code or cipher.

3. 3

   Of an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ.

4. 4

   obsoleteTo decipher.

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

Forms

plural

ciphers

past tense

ciphered

past participle

ciphered

present participle

ciphering

third person singular

ciphers