cipher

/ˈsaɪfər/
noun
  1. A secret system of writing, used to hide the meaning of a message; a code.
    • Breaking the enemy's cipher took the codebreakers months.
    • In the game, players must solve a cipher to unlock the treasure.
    • The spy used a simple cipher to encode her messages.
  2. A person or thing of no importance; a nobody.
    • She refused to be a cipher in her own life.
    • In the huge corporation, he felt like a cipher.
    • The new intern was treated as a cipher by the senior staff.
  3. The mathematical symbol (0) representing zero; a zero.
    • In Roman numerals, there is no cipher for zero.
    • He wrote a cipher to show the empty column.
    • The number 100 has two ciphers after the one.
verb
  1. To encode or convert a message into a secret code.
    • The agent learned how to cipher messages quickly.
    • Please cipher this document before sending it.
    • They used a special algorithm to cipher the data.
  2. To do arithmetic; to calculate using numbers.
    • He could cipher in his head faster than most people.
    • Before calculators, everyone had to cipher by hand.
    • The students learned to cipher with paper and pencil.
Antonyms
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