“Vigenère”

The following 2 entries include the term Vigenère.

Vigenère cipher

noun

: polyalphabetic substitution with alphabets derived from one pair of primary alphabets by sliding (as in the Vigenère tableau) for which the usual keying formula is P+K=C where P is the position of the plaintext letter in the plain component, C that of the ciphertext letter in the cipher sequence, and K that of the key letter in the normal alphabet and where positions are numbered from 0 to 25 and 26 is subtracted from sums above 25 compare beaufort cipher , progressive-alphabet cipher

Vigenère tableau

noun

: a square cipher table formed by placing the same normal or mixed primary alphabet one step farther to the left on each successive line and used by reading the ciphertext letter within the table in the row and column defined by key and plaintext letters in alphabets in the left and top margins respectively


Fashionable Words

  • dog-sunglasses-scarf
  • Which of these items is named for a deadly weapon?
Spell It

Hear a word and type it out. How many can you get right?

TAKE THE QUIZ
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.

Pick the best words!

PLAY
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!