CIPHER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • 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

... man. "And let me tell you," he added, "for your personal benefit, while examining those crescents yesterday, I put a private mark on the back of the settings with a steel-pointed instrument; it was like this"—making a cipher on a card and passing it to him. "If you should ever be fortunate enough to come across them again, you could identify them ...

— Mona • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... that "women are of no great account" is a sentiment expressed, not by me, but by Antoinette. But all the same I soon found myself a cipher in the house, where the triumvirate of the negligible sex, Antoinette, the nurse and Carlotta, ...

— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke

... of the worship of a military chieftain for the maintenance of that liberty, the last hope of man. Ten years later he uttered the same opinion in a conversation with Miss Martineau, and he expressed a preference for an annual president, a cipher, so that all would be done by the ministry. But in the impossibility of this plan, he would have preferred a four years' term without renewal or an extension of six years; an idea adopted by Davis in his plan of disintegration by secession. The presidency, Mr. Gallatin thought, was "too much power ...

— Albert Gallatin - American Statesmen Series, Vol. XIII • John Austin Stevens

... late accomplishments in the field of labor, Mr. Thompson looked out of his cabin door to where he could see dimly through the trees the uncompleted bulk of his church—and he set down a mental cipher against that account. It was waste effort. He felt in his heart that he would never finish it. What ...

— Burned Bridges • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... time 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 of ...

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

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