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Cipher vs Baffle - What's the difference?

cipher | baffle |

In obsolete terms the difference between cipher and baffle

is that cipher is zero while baffle is to hoodwink or deceive (someone).

As nouns the difference between cipher and baffle

is that cipher is a numeric character while baffle is a device used to dampen the effects of such things as sound, light, or fluid. Specifically, a baffle is a surface which is placed inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one part to another, without preventing motion altogether.

As verbs the difference between cipher and baffle

is that cipher is to calculate while baffle is to publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight.

cipher

English

Alternative forms

* cypher, less common than cipher but still in use in English. see The Ultra Secret by 's series of Cyphers (Nr 1, Nr 2, Nr 3, ...) before and into WWII.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A numeric character.
  • Any text character.
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
    • This wisdom began to be written in ciphers and characters and letters bearing the forms of creatures.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • * Bishop Burnet
    • His father engaged him when he was very young to write all his letters to England in cipher .
  • (cryptography) A cryptographic system using an algorithm that converts letters]] or sequences of [[bit, bits into ciphertext.
  • Ciphertext; a message concealed via a cipher .
    • The message is clearly a cipher , but I can't figure it out.
  • 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.
  • A design of interlacing initials: a decorative design consisting of a set of interlaced initials.
  • (music) A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.
  • A hip-hop jam session [http://www.rapdict.org/Cipher]
  • The path (usually circular) shared cannabis takes through a group, an occasion of cannabis smoking.
  • Someone or something of no importance.
  • * Washington Irving
    • Here he was a mere cipher .
  • (obsolete) Zero.

    • Synonyms

    * (numeric character) number, numeral * (method for concealing the meaning of text) code * (cryptographic system using an algorithm) * (ciphertext) * * (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; (thing) nonentity, nothing, nullity * naught/nought, nothing, oh, zero

    Derived terms

    * ciphertext * cypherpunk * cypherparty * decipher * encipher

    Related terms

    * zero

    Citations

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (regional, dated) To calculate.
    • I never learned much more than how to read and cipher .
  • * 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', 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.

    baffle

    English

    Verb

    (baffl)
  • (obsolete) To publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.7:
    • He by the heeles him hung upon a tree, / And baffuld so, that all which passed by / The picture of his punishment might see […].
  • (obsolete) To hoodwink or deceive (someone).
    • (Barrow)
  • To bewilder completely; to confuse or perplex.
    • I am baffled by the contradictions and omissions in the instructions.
  • * Prescott
    • calculations so difficult as to have baffled , until within a recent period, the most enlightened nations
  • * John Locke
    • The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us.
  • * Cowper
    • the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim
  • * South
    • a suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all
  • To struggle in vain.
    • A ship baffles with the winds.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A device used to dampen the effects of such things as sound, light, or fluid. Specifically, a baffle is a surface which is placed inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one part to another, without preventing motion altogether.
    • Tanker trucks use baffles to keep the liquids inside from sloshing around.
  • An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.