Cipher
['saɪfə] or ['saɪfɚ]
Definition
(noun.) a message written in a secret code.
(noun.) a secret method of writing.
(noun.) a person of no influence.
Checker: Merle--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A character [0] which, standing by itself, expresses nothing, but when placed at the right hand of a whole number, increases its value tenfold.
(n.) One who, or that which, has no weight or influence.
(n.) A character in general, as a figure or letter.
(n.) 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.
(n.) A private alphabet, system of characters, or other mode of writing, contrived for the safe transmission of secrets; also, a writing in such characters.
(a.) Of the nature of a cipher; of no weight or influence.
(v. i.) To use figures in a mathematical process; to do sums in arithmetic.
(v. t.) To write in occult characters.
(v. t.) To get by ciphering; as, to cipher out the answer.
(v. t.) To decipher.
(v. t.) To designate by characters.
Checker: Marsha
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Zero, naught or nought, nothing.[2]. Character, symbol, device.[3]. Secret character, private alphabet.
v. n. Practise arithmetic.
Edited by Babbage
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Nonentity, dot, nothing, trifle, button, (fig.)_straw, pin, rush, molehill
ANT:Somebody, bigwig, something, notability, celebrity, triton, colossus, star
Checker: Percy
Definition
n. (arith.) the character 0: any of the nine figures: anything of little value whether persons or things: a nonentity: an interweaving of the initials of a name: a secret kind of writing.—v.i. to work at arithmetic: to write in cipher: of an organ-pipe to sound independent of the organ: (Shak.) to decipher.—ns. Cī′phering; Cī′pher-key a key to a cipher or piece of secret writing.
Inputed by Boris
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of reading cipher, indicates that you are interested in literary researches, and by constant study you will become well acquainted with the habits and lives of the ancients.
Editor: Megan
Examples
- I could not get Louisville, and the cipher message began to come. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- A third typical story of this period deals with a cipher message for Thomas. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Lady Bertram seems more of a cipher now than when he is at home; and nobody else can keep Mrs. Norris in order. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- Afterwards he had, to fulfill the prearranged cipher, to fill in any two words in each space. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- I had to cipher a comprehension of it. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- I told him the circumstances, and suggested that he had better cipher such communications, or put on a secret sounder. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Yes, sir, a cipher telegram has been despatched. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- But three of the number can read: none write or cipher. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- But, at last I began, in a purblind groping way, to read, write, and cipher, on the very smallest scale. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- No one would deny the right of forming a provisional assumption to the intelligence officer interpreting a cipher, or to the detective unravelling the mystery of a crime. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- So there was splendour and wealth, but no great happiness perchance, behind the tall caned portals of Gaunt House with its smoky coronets and ciphers. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- It looks like an exaggeration or as if the typesetter had slipped in several extra ciphers by mistake, does it not? Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- From that hour Fanny and Eliza became ciphers in the sick-room. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Give me an example of your meaning, Wamba,--I know nothing of ciphers or rates of usage, answered the Knight. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- After he withdrew from school, he read, wrote, and ciphered (in the intervals of manu al work) almost incessantly. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
Checker: Mimi