noun

cipher

SEYE-fuh

noun

A system for turning readable text into a secret, scrambled form; more loosely, a secret code.

"The spy sent messages written in a simple cipher."

"Historians finally cracked the general's wartime cipher."

A person or thing regarded as having no real importance or influence.

"Without real authority, the new manager was just a cipher."

verb

To convert a message into a secret code.

"The clerk ciphered the report before sending it."

How to Use Cipher

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishA secret code for hiding a message, or someone/something with no real substance.

Common mistake

In everyday use "cipher" almost always means a code; the "person of no importance" sense is more literary.

Common pairings

crack a cipher a simple cipher encode in cipher

ciphered past tense, ciphers plural, ciphers singular

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Can you complete this real example?

The spy sent messages written in a simple _____.

From Old French cyfre, ultimately from Arabic sifr meaning "zero" or "empty" — the same root that gives us the word "zero" itself.

decipher