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Cipher vs Hash - What's the difference?

cipher | hash |

As nouns the difference between cipher and hash

is that cipher is a numeric character while hash is food, especially meat and potatoes, chopped and mixed together.

As verbs the difference between cipher and hash

is that cipher is to calculate while hash is to chop into small pieces, to make into a hash.

As an adjective hash is

hashed, chopped into small pieces.

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

    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.

    hash

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (es)
  • Food]], especially meat and potatoes, chopped and mixed together.
  • * 1633 , Samuel Pepys, Diary
  • I had for them, after oysters, at first course, a hash of rabbits, a lamb, and a rare chine of beef.
  • A confused mess.
  • * 1847 , Charlotte Yonge, Scenes and Characters
  • Oh! no, not Naylor's--the girls have made a hash there, as they do everything else; but we will settle her before they come out again.
  • The symbol (octothorpe, pound).
  • (computing) The result generated by a hash function.
  • A new mixture of old material; a second preparation or exhibition; a rehashing.
  • * Walpole
  • I cannot bear elections, and still less the hash of them over again in a first session.
  • A hash run; a sort of paperchase organised by the (Hash House Harriers).
  • * 1987 , Susan Scott-Stevens, Foreign Consultants and Counterparts (page 81)
  • Most hashes are planned as family affairs, with a shorter "puppy" trail laid for the children.
    Synonyms
    * (result generated by hash function) checksum
    Derived terms
    * * * * * *

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Hashed, chopped into small pieces
  • * 1855 , William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes
  • The Colonel, himself, was great at making hash mutton, hot-pot, curry, and pillau.
    Derived terms
    * hash browns * hash function * hashhouse * hash table * hash map * hashing * hash coding * hash key * hash value * hashtag

    Verb

    (es)
  • To chop into small pieces, to make into a hash.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
  • In like manner, we shall represent human nature at first to the keen appetite of our reader, in that more plain and simple manner in which it is found in the country, and shall hereafter hash and ragoo it with all the high French and Italian seasoning of affectation and vice which courts and cities afford.
  • To make a quick, rough version
  • We need to quickly hash up some plans.
  • (computing) To transform according to a hash function.
  • Derived terms
    * hash out * rehash

    Etymology 2

    Clipped form of hashish .

    Noun

    (-)
  • Hashish, a drug derived from the cannabis plant.
  • Anagrams

    * ----