cipher

Meanings

Noun

• A numeric character.
• Any text character.
• A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name.
• A method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning.
• A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters or sequences of bits into ciphertext.
• Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher.
• A grouping of three digits in a number, especially when delimited by commas or periods:
• A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.
• A hip-hop jam session.
• The path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking.
• Someone or something of no importance.
• Zero.

Verb

• To calculate.
• To write in code or cipher.
• Of an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ.
• To decipher.

Origin

• 14th century. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic صِفْر ("zero, empty"), from صَفَرَ. zero. Sense 9 may be a different word.