Word Origin and History for cipher. n. late 14c., arithmetical symbol for zero, from Old French cifre nought, zero, Medieval Latin cifra, with Spanish and Italian cifra, ultimately from Arabic sifr zero, literally empty, nothing, from safara to be empty; loan-translation of Sanskrit sunya-s empty.. The word came to Europe with Arabic numerals.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cipher
Definition of transposition cipher. : a cipher in which the letters of the plaintext are systematically rearranged into another sequence — compare substitution cipher.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transposition%20cipher
cypher - a quantity of no importance; it looked like nothing I had ever seen before; reduced to nil all the work we had done; we racked up a pathetic goose egg; it was all for naught; I didn't hear zilch about it. goose egg, nada, naught, nil, nix, nothing, null, zero, zilch, zip, zippo, aught, cipher.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cypher
First: I have personally known three instances where a whale, after receiving a harpoon, has effected a complete escape; and, after an interval (in one instance of three years), has been again struck by the same hand, and slain; when the two irons, both marked by the same private cypher, have been taken from the body.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cypher
TRENDING NOW. 1  armada 'A fleet of warships'. 2  volunteer 'Someone who does something without being forced to do it'. 3  operationalize Bannon was removed from the National Security Council.  filibuster 'An effort to prevent action in a 1  legislature'. witch hunt Lookups spiked after the president used the phrase in a tweet.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transposition%20cipher
a. a secret method of writing, as by code. b. writing done by such a method; a coded message. 5. the key to a secret method of writing. 6. a combination of letters, as the initials of a name; monogram.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cypher
In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. To encipher or encode is to convert information into cipher or code. In common parlance, 'cipher' is synonymous with 'code', as they are both a set of steps that encrypt a message; however, the concepts are distinct in cryptography, especially classical cryptography.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher
A cipher is the numeral zero or someone without influence or importance. Don't vote your popular classmate to be the student council leader if he or she is actually a cipher, someone who can't do the job effectively.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/cipher
Word Origin & History. cipher 1399, from M.L. cifra, from Arabic sifr zero, lit. empty, nothing, from safara to be empty, loan-transl. of Skt. sunya-s empty.. Came to Europe with Arabic numerals. Original meaning zero, then any numeral, then (first in Fr. and It.) coded message (first attested in Eng.
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/cipher
Cipher comes from the Arabic sifr meaning nothing or zero and came to Europe as a word along with the Arabic numeral system. As early codes substituted numerals for letters to hide the word’s meaning, codes became known as ciphers. If you crack a cipher, you break the code enabling you to understand the message.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/cipher
what is the meaning of the word cipher
The meaning of the word cipher is "zero". The word cipher means 'zero'.