I. ˈsīfə(r) noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French cifre, from Medieval Latin cifra zero, from Arabic ṣifr empty, cipher, zero
1. : the symbol 0 denoting the absence of all magnitude or quantity : naught , zero — see number table
2.
a. : a method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning (1) by systematically replacing the letters of the plaintext by substitutes in the same sequence either singly or in pairs or other polygraphs (as by writing 1 for A, 2 for B, etc., or F for A, S for B, etc., or QL for AB, etc.) or (2) by systematically rearranging the plaintext letters into another sequence (as by writing them normally in a rectangle and then copying them off from the columns taken in an arbitrary succession) — called also respectively (1) substitution cipher and (2) transposition cipher ; compare code 3
b. : a prescription for a cipher system : a key or memorandum that enables decipherment
c. : a message in cipher : a text in secret writing
3. : an arabic numeral : number , figure
4.
a. obsolete : a symbolic character (as a letter, hieroglyph, or astrological sign)
b. : a combination of symbolic letters ; especially : the interwoven initials of a name : device , monogram
an engraver's cipher
c. : a sign in Karl Jaspers' existentialism serving to mediate between the existent and the transcendent
5. : one that has no weight, worth, or influence : nonentity
doomed to die as a cipher in some vast statistical operation in which our teeth would be counted … but our death itself would be unknown — Norman Mailer
6. : the sounding of an organ pipe caused by a mechanical defect
II. verb
( ciphered ; ciphered ; ciphering -f(ə)riŋ ; ciphers )
intransitive verb
1. : to use figures in a mathematical process : do sums in arithmetic : figure
2. : to produce a cipher — used of an organ pipe
transitive verb
1.
a. archaic : to express (as thoughts or words) by written or graven characters
b. obsolete : to show forth : make plain by visible evidence : portray
c. : encipher
d. obsolete : decipher
2. in shipbuilding : bevel , chamfer
3.
a. : to compute in figures : calculate or figure arithmetically — sometimes used with out
a sum ciphered out
b. dialect : to figure out as if by calculation : solve by pondering