cipher

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The mathematical symbol (0) denoting absence of quantity; zero.
• noun An Arabic numeral or figure; a number.
• noun One having no influence or value; a nonentity.
• noun A cryptographic system in which units of text of regular length, usually letters, are transposed or substituted according to a predetermined code.
• noun The key to such a system.
• noun A message written or transmitted in such a system.
• noun A design combining or interweaving letters or initials; a monogram.
• intransitive verb To solve problems in arithmetic; calculate.
• intransitive verb To put in secret writing; encode.
• intransitive verb To solve by means of arithmetic.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To use figures; practise arithmetic by means of numerical figures or notation.
• In fox-hunting, to hunt carefully about in search of a lost trail: said of a dog.
• To run on three legs: said of a dog.
• Of an organ-pipe, to sound independently of the action of tiie player, in consequence of some mechanical derangement in the organ.
• To reckon in figures; cast up; make out in detail, as or as if by ciphering: generally with up or out, and often used figuratively: as, to cipher or cipher up the cost of an undertaking; to cipher out the proper method of proceeding.
• To write in occult characters.
• To designate or express by a sign; characterize.
• To decipher.
• To put (a batsman) out without scoring; also, to put a cipher opposite to (a batsman's name) to indicate that he has failed to score.
• noun In arithmetic and algebra, a character of the form 0, which by itself is the symbol of nought or null quantity, but when used in certain relations with other figures or symbols increases or diminishes their relative value according to its position.
• noun Figuratively, something of no value, consequence, or power; especially, a person of no weight, influence, usefulness, or decided character.
• noun A written character in general, especially a numeral character.
• noun A combination of letters, as the initials of a name, in one complex device, engraved, stamped, or written on something, as on a seal, plate, coach, tomb, picture, etc.; a literal device. See monogram.
• noun In heraldry, such a combination of letters borne upon a small escutcheon or cartouche, and substituted in an achievement of arms of a woman for the crest, which appears only in those of men.
• noun A secret or disguised manner of writing; any method of conveying a hidden meaning by writing, whether by means of an arbitrary use of characters or combinations understood only by the persons concerned, or by a conventional significance attached to words conveying a different meaning to one not in the secret; cryptography.
• noun Anything written in cipher; a cryptogram.
• noun The key to a cipher or secret mode of writing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To use figures in a mathematical process; to do sums in arithmetic.
• transitive verb To write in occult characters.
• transitive verb To get by ciphering.
• transitive verb obsolete To decipher.
• transitive verb obsolete To designate by characters.
• adjective Of the nature of a cipher; of no weight or influence.
• noun (Arith.) A character [0] which, standing by itself, expresses nothing, but when placed at the right hand of a whole number, increases its value tenfold.
• noun One who, or that which, has no weight or influence.
• noun obsolete A character in general, as a figure or letter.
• noun A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name; a device; a monogram; The cut represents the initials N. W.
• noun A private alphabet, system of characters, or other mode of writing, contrived for the safe transmission of secrets; also, a writing in such characters.
• noun a key to assist in reading writings in cipher.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A numeric character.
• noun A method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning.
• noun cryptography A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters or sequences of bits into ciphertext.
• noun Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher.
• noun A grouping of three digits in a number, especially when delimited by commas or periods:
• noun A design of interlacing initials: a decorative design consisting of a set of interlaced initials.
• noun music A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.
• noun The path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking.
• noun Someone or something of no importance.
• noun obsolete Zero.