ci|pher

ci|pher «SY fuhr», noun, verb.

–n.

1. secret writing or code. A cipher transposes the letters of a message according to a set pattern, or replaces the proper letters with substitutes called for in the system used, or combines both methods. »

Part of the spy's letter is in cipher.

SYNONYM(S): cryptograph.

2. something in secret writing or code: »

Washington received many ciphers from his spies.

3. the key to a method of secret writing or code: »

Nobody could decode ancient Egyptian writing until a cipher was discovered.

4. zero; 0. SYNONYM(S): naught, nought, nil.

5. all Arabic numerals or any Arabic numeral; a number.

6. Figurative. a person or thing of no importance; nonentity: »

to the lady and lord rather—his lordship being little more than a cipher in the house (Thackeray). The impotent estate being reduced to a cipher is as if it had no existence (Henry Peter Brougham).

SYNONYM(S): nothing.

7. interlaced initials; monogram.

–v.i.

to do arithmetic; use figures to work arithmetical problems: »

She can read, write and cipher.

–v.t.

1. a) to work by arithmetic; compute: »

The manufacturer ciphered it with his eyes on the ceiling (Josiah G. Holland).

b) U.S.: Informal. to figure out; calculate; think: »

She puzzles her brain to cipher out some scheme for getting it into my hands (Mark Twain).

2. to express by using characters of any kind, especially in secret writing or code: »

He was employed…in ciphering and deciphering the letters (Samuel Johnson).

Also, cypher.

╂[< Medieval Latin ciphra < Arabic sifr empty. See etym. of doublet zero. (Cf. ↑zero)]

–ci´pher|a|ble, adjective.