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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cipher.

A numeric character.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsaɪfə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsaɪfɚ/Canada, US
  1. A numeric character.

    dated
  2. Any text character.

    obsolete
  3. A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name.

    archaic
    a painter's cipher
    an engraver'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.
  7. A grouping of three digits in a number, especially when delimited by commas or periods.

    obsolete
    The probability is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 — a number having five ciphers of zeros.
  8. A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.

  9. A hip-hop jam session.

    slang
  10. The path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking.

    slang
  11. Someone or something of no importance.

    dated
  12. Zero.

    dated
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈsaɪfə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsaɪfɚ/Canada, US
  1. To calculate.

    dated · intransitive · regional
    I never learned much more than how to read and cipher.
  2. To write in code or cipher.

    intransitive
  3. Of an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ.

    intransitive
  4. To decipher.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.