different between decoding vs cipher

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??k??d??(?)/

Noun

decoding (plural decodings)

1. An instance of the translation of something into a form more suitable for subsequent processing.

Verb

decoding

1. present participle of decode

English

Alternative forms

• (less common) cypher

Etymology

14th century. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic ?????? (?ifr, “zero, empty”), from ??????? (?afara, “to be empty”). Doublet of zero. Sense 9 may be a different word.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ci?pher
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sa?f?/
• (US, Canada) enPR: ?s?-f?r, IPA^(key): /?sa?f?/
• Rhymes: -a?f?(r)

Noun

cipher (plural ciphers)

1. A numeric character.
2. Any text character.

   • This understanding wisdom began to be written in ciphers and characters and letters bearing the forms of creatures.

3. A combination or interweaving of letters, as the initials of a name; a device; a monogram.

   a painter's cipher, an engraver's cipher, etc.

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.

   • His father […] engaged him when he was very young to write all his letters to England in cipher.

5. (cryptography) A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters or sequences of bits into ciphertext.
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:

   The probability is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 — a number having five ciphers of zeros.

8. (music) 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.
10. The path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking.
11. Someone or something of no importance; a nonentity

    • There he was a mere cipher.

12. (dated) Zero.

Synonyms

• (numeric character): number, numeral
• (method for concealing the meaning of text): code
• (cryptographic system using an algorithm):
• (ciphertext):
• (a grouping of three digits in a number, especially when delimited):
• (design of interlacing initials): monogram
• (fault in an organ valve causing a pipe to sound continuously):
• (hip-hop jam session):
• (path that shared cannabis takes through a group):
• (someone or something of no importance): (person): nobody, nonentity, see also Thesaurus:nonentity; (thing) nonentity, nothing, nullity
• (obsolete: zero): naught/nought, nothing, oh, zero

Derived terms

Related terms

• zero

Translations

Verb

cipher (third-person singular simple present ciphers, present participle ciphering, simple past and past participle ciphered)

1. (intransitive, regional, dated) To calculate.

   I never learned much more than how to read and cipher.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. IX, Abbot Samson

     For the mischief that one blockhead, that every blockhead does, in a world so feracious, teeming with endless results as ours, no ciphering will sum up.

   • 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred:

     Can you cipher too—along with your reading and writing?

2. (intransitive) To write in code or cipher.
3. (intransitive, music) Of an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ.
4. (obsolete) To decipher.

References

Anagrams

• ceriph, chipre, rechip