cipher

plural ciphers · alternative UK cypher

1. datedA numeric character.

   Synonyms: number, numeral, digit

2. obsoleteAny 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; […]

   1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], “Of diuers memorable things betweene the fall of Adam, and the floud of Noah”, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, 1st book, §. VI (Of the Patriarchs deliuering their knowledge by Tradition: and that Enoch writ before the floud), pages 78–79

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

   a painter's cipher

   2 more examples

   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?"

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 290

   Synonyms: device, monogram

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.

   1 more example

   He was very early engaged in great ſecrets: For his fatherr, apprehending of what fatal conſequence it would have been to the King’s affairs if his correſpondence had been diſcovered by unfaithful Secretaries, engaged him when very young to write all his letters to England in cypher; ſo that he was generally half the day writing in cypher, or decyphering, and was ſo diſcrect, as well as faithful, that nothing was ever diſcovered by him.

   a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, “Book II. Of the First Twelve Years of the Reign of King Charles II. from the Year 1660 to the Year 1673.”, in [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], editor, Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume I, London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC, page 257

   Synonyms: code

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

   a public-key cipher

6. Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher.

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

7. obsoleteA 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. entertainmentA fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.
9. slangusually spelled as cypherentertainmentA hip-hop jam session.

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

   2011, “The World Is Listening”, in The Journey Aflame, performed by Akua Naru

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

    1993, “Midnight”, in Midnight Marauders, performed by A Tribe Called Quest

    Synonyms: rotation

11. datedSomeone or something of no importance.

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

    1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Club of Queer Fellows”, in Tales of a Traveller, part 2 (Buckthorne and His Friends), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC, page 22

    Synonyms: nobody, nonentity, nothing, absolute zero, also-ran, chopped liver, crumb, Joe Nobody

12. datedZero.

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

    2024, Numberphile, by Brady Haran with Rob Eastaway, The Big X - Numberphile

    2 more examples

    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.

    1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, prologue], page 69, columns 1–2

    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.

    1716, John Hill, Arithmetick Both in the Theory and Practice, Made Plain and Easie, in All the Common and Useful Rules, Both in Whole Numbers, and Fractions, Vulgar and Decimal. […], 2nd edition, London: […] D. Midwinter, […], page 185

present singular third person ciphers · participle present ciphering · participle past ciphered · past ciphered · alternative UK cypher

1. datedintransitiveregionalTo calculate.

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

   3 more examples

   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.

   1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Abbot Samson”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk), page 88

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

   a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “[Book IV.—Time and Eternity] (please specify the chapter or poem)”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, First Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1890, →OCLC, page 115

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

   1979, Octavia E[stelle] Butler, Kindred

2. intransitiveTo write in code or cipher.
3. intransitiveentertainmentOf an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ.
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.

   1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, signature [F4], recto