What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Cipher vs Obscurity - What's the difference?

cipher | obscurity | Synonyms |

As nouns the difference between cipher and obscurity

is that cipher is a numeric character while obscurity is darkness; the absence of light.

As a verb cipher

is to calculate.

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.

    obscurity

    English

    (wikipedia obscurity)

    Noun

  • (label) Darkness; the absence of light.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1907, author=
    • , chapter=6, title= The Dust of Conflict , passage=The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land. It rose in places, black and sharp against the velvety indigo, over her dipping bow, though most of the low littoral was wrapped in obscurity .}}
  • * 1919 ,
  • *:I walked in, and Stroeve followed me. The room was in darkness. I could only see that it was an attic, with a sloping roof; and a faint glimmer, no more than a less profound obscurity , came from a skylight.
  • The state of being unknown; a thing that is unknown.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
    • , chapter=5, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=The departure was not unduly prolonged.
  • The quality of being difficult to understand; a thing that is difficult to understand.

    • Related terms

    * obscure