Ciphered

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. A method of concealing information transforms readable text into an unreadable format through a secure system that requires decryption for interpretation
2. The conversion of a clear message into a scrambled version entails the application of algorithms to ensure that only those with the proper key can understand it
3. Transforms plain text into a coded form to hide its content from unauthorized viewers

Etymology: Arabic "ṣifr" meant "empty," and it is the root of "zero" itself. When Arabic mathematics spread into medieval Europe, the word traveled through Italian and Old French, where it became "chiffre," a name for the numeral zero and then for numerals in general. The English form "cifre" arrived in the 14th century, first carrying the same sense of a numerical symbol. From there the meaning drifted from numbers to secrecy. A system that replaces letters with numerals or other symbols is a code that works through arithmetic-like substitution, so the name for the numeral became the name for the hidden writing. "Cipher" thus came to mean a method for disguising messages, and a text that has been disguised this way is "ciphered."

Synonyms: encoded, encrypted, obscured, scrambled, encoded

Antonyms: decoded, revealed, unmasked, uncovered, exposed