cipher1

noun

• 1a secret or disguised way of writing; a code:he wrote cryptic notes in a cipher [mass noun]:the information may be given in cipher
• something written in a code: he came across ciphers written on parchment and concealed in a hollow altar pillar
• a key to a code.

• 2 dated a zero; a figure 0.
• a person of no importance, especially one who does the bidding of others and seems to have no will of their own: journalists are not mere interchangeable ciphers in the propaganda battle

• 3a monogram: a pair of rock crystal goblets engraved with the cipher of Peter the Great

verb

• 1 [with object] put (a message) into secret writing; encode: he left two, as yet uncracked, ciphered messages for posthumous decoding

• 2 [no object] archaic do arithmetic.