Definition

1. Noun:

   • A secret or disguised way of writing; a code: A system for concealing the meaning of a message by replacing its letters or words with others according to a key.
   • A person or thing of no importance or value: Someone or something considered insignificant or having zero influence.
   • The symbol 0; zero; nil: The mathematical digit representing no quantity.
   • A monogram or interwoven design: A decorative figure consisting of letters, typically initials, combined together.

2. Verb:

   • To calculate or compute arithmetically: To perform a mathematical operation.
   • To write in or convert into a secret code: To encipher or encrypt a message.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:

  • The spy sent the instructions in a complex cypher.
  • He felt like a mere cypher in the large, impersonal corporation.
  • The final score was a disappointing cypher.
  • Her family cypher was engraved on the silver ring.

• Verb:

  • Can you cypher the total cost for this project?
  • The agent had to cypher the sensitive document before transmission.

Advanced Usage

• "To be a cypher for": To serve as a symbol or representation of something else, often something abstract.
  • In the novel, the empty house is a cypher for the protagonist's loneliness.

Variants and Related Words

• Cipher: This is the more common modern spelling for all meanings of "cypher". The words are fully interchangeable.
• Encipher (verb): To convert a message into a cipher. (e.g., )
• Decipher (verb): To convert a message from a cipher back into ordinary language; to decode. (e.g., )

Synonyms

• Noun (code): Code, cryptograph.
• Noun (zero): Zero, nil, nothing, naught, zilch, goose egg.
• Noun (nonentity): Nobody, nonentity, zero.
• Verb (calculate): Calculate, compute, reckon, figure.
• Verb (encode): Encode, encrypt, encipher.

Related Phrases

• A broken cypher: A code that has been or can be deciphered.
  • The enemy's messages were useless once they became a broken cypher.

Related Idioms

• A cypher in the wheel: An insignificant or unnoticed part of a larger system. (A variation of "a cog in the machine").
  • He was tired of being treated as just a cypher in the wheel of the bureaucracy.

Noun

1. a message written in a secret code
2. a secret method of writing
3. a person of no influence
4. 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
5. a mathematical element that when added to another number yields the same number

Verb

1. make a mathematical calculation or computation
2. convert ordinary language into code
   • We should encode the message for security reasons