cypher UK /ˈsaɪfə/US /ˈsaɪfɚ/noun 12verb 4forms 2 noun12 •A method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning.The message was written in a simple cipher. Anyone could figure it out. •A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters or sequences of bits into ciphertext. •Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher.The message is clearly a cipher, but I can't figure it out. •Someone or something of no importance.There he was a mere cypher: here he was lord of the ascendant; the choice spirit, the dominant genius. — 1824 •(old-fashioned) A numeric character. •(old-fashioned) Zero.O pardon: since a crooked Figure may / Attest in little place a Million, / And let vs, Cyphers to this great Accompt, / On your imaginarie Forces worke. — 1599 •(slang) The path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking.As the night seemed darker, cops is on a hunt / They interrupt your cipher, and crush your blunt — 1993 •(slang) A hip-hop jam session.They say no girls in the cipher, so I rock solo — 2011 •A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed. •A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name. •(no longer used) Any text character.In succeeding times this vnderstanding wisedome began to be written in Ciphers, and Characters, and letters bearing the forme of beastes, birds, and other creatures; […] — 1614 •(no longer used) A grouping of three digits in a number, especially when delimited by commas or periods.The probability is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 — a number having five ciphers of zeros. verb4 •To write in code or cipher. •(old-fashioned) To calculate.I never learned much more than how to read and cipher. •Of an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ. •(no longer used) To decipher.Yea the illiterate that know not how To cipher what is writ in learned bookes, VVill cote my lothsome trespasse in my lookes. — 1594 formscyphered · cyphers
