CIPHER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Cipher

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/sˈaɪfər/ Listen

noun

Cipher n.

1.

(Arith.) A character (0) which, standing by itself, expresses nothing, but when placed at the right hand of a whole number, increases its value tenfold.

2.

One who, or that which, has no weight or influence. "Here he was a mere cipher."

3.

A character in general, as a figure or letter. (Obs.) "This wisdom began to be written in ciphers and characters and letters bearing the forms of creatures."

4.

A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name; a device; a monogram; as, a painter's cipher, an engraver's cipher, etc. The cut represents the initials N. W.

5.

A private alphabet, system of characters, or other mode of writing, contrived for the safe transmission of secrets; also, a writing in such characters. "His father... engaged him when he was very young to write all his letters to England in cipher."

Cipher key, a key to assist in reading writings in cipher.

verb

Cipher v. t.

1.

To write in occult characters. "His notes he ciphered with Greek characters."

2.

To get by ciphering; as, to cipher out the answer.

3.

To decipher. (Obs.)

4.

To designate by characters. (Obs.)

Cipher v. i. (past & past part. ciphered; pres. part. ciphering) To use figures in a mathematical process; to do sums in arithmetic. "'T was certain he could write and cipher too."

adjective

Cipher adj. Of the nature of a cipher; of no weight or influence. "Twelve cipher bishops."

See images of 'Cipher'

Etymology of 'Cipher'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cipher" Quotes from Famous Books

... unknown to us, and then become the seat of wild chiefs of whom we know nothing, until with their axes they cut their Runic signs into a few of these stones, which then came into the calendar of time. But as for me, I had gone quite beyond all lapse of time, and had become a cipher and a nothing. Then three or four beautiful falling stars came down, which cleared the air, and gave my thoughts another direction. You know what a falling star is, do you not? The learned men are not at all clear about it. I have my own ideas about shooting stars, as ...

— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen

... heart were a cipher, and if passion were calendar-making! . . ." retorted Philippus. "You are a very wise man, and your manuscripts and tables have stood like walls between ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... Their Majesties were adored. Marie Antoinette, with all her beauty and amiableness, was a mere cipher in the eyes of France previous to her becoming the mother of an heir to the Crown; but her popularity now arose to a pitch ...

— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... legal proceedings a committee had obtained from the Western Union Telegraph Company over thirty thousand of the telegrams sent by both parties during the campaign. The Republicans declared that the "cipher despatches" among these messages showed that the Democrats had offered a substantial bribe for the vote of an Oregon Republican elector. Before the dispatches were returned to the telegraph company, somebody took the precaution to destroy those that concerned Republican campaign ...

— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... striped satin, which must have been manufactured for the express purpose of composing the American flag. The stars were embroidered in silver on a dark blue satin sky. On the reverse, a rich white satin lining bore Julian's cipher, surrounded with silver embroidery. . . . The children amused themselves with their presents all day. But first I took my new Milton and read aloud to them the Hymn of the Nativity, which I do every Christmas." "How easy it is," my mother writes of a Christmas-tree ...

— Memories of Hawthorne • Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

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