cipher

/ˈsaɪfə/

Etymology

14th century. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “zero, empty”), from صَفَرَ (ṣafara, “to be empty”). Doublet of chiffre and zero. Sense 8 (a fault in an organ valve) may be a different word.

Why this word is great

CIPHER — [Noun] A numeric character or a method of secret writing using substitution or transposition of letters. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre (French chiffre), from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “zero, empty”), from صَفَرَ (ṣafara, “to be empty”). Unlike "code" (which replaces whole words or phrases) or "zero" (which is strictly the numeral 0), "cipher" is both a symbol and a system, a hidden architecture of meaning. It is the silent turning of letters into other letters, the blank face of a spy who gives nothing away, or the hollow ring of a zero in a ledger—proof that emptiness, too, can be full of meaning.

noun

  1. A numeric character.
  2. 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; […]”
  3. A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name.“a painter's cipher”
  4. 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.”
  5. A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters or sequences of bits into ciphertext.“a public-key cipher”
  6. Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher.“The message is clearly a cipher, but I can't figure it out.”

verb

  1. To calculate.“I never learned much more than how to read and cipher.”
  2. To write in code or cipher.
  3. Of an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ.
  4. 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.”