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as in nobody
a person of no importance or influence
it was either write the Great American Novel or be consigned to the status of a cipher in the annals of literature
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to figure
to determine (a value) by doing the necessary mathematical operations
were surprised by how much we had spent on the cruise after we had ciphered out the grand total
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cipher
Dennis Harvey, Variety, 3 July 2025
To the police detectives who visit his school, teen behavior is a cipher to be decoded, almost literally: their breakthrough arrives when the lead detective’s young son takes pity on his dad and tells him what all the emojis in Jamie’s Instagram replies mean.
—Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 30 June 2025
Stephen Nash, New York Times, 25 July 2017
See All Example Sentences for cipher
Noun
Whereas Elliot remains something of a cipher, a manchild whose amply displayed abs have more definition than his character.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 3 July 2025
To the police detectives who visit his school, teen behavior is a cipher to be decoded, almost literally: their breakthrough arrives when the lead detective’s young son takes pity on his dad and tells him what all the emojis in Jamie’s Instagram replies mean.
—Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 30 June 2025
Verb
These remnants, signals from an earlier phase of our human condition, have been endlessly ciphered by generations of archaeologists in the Bears Ears region (which is named for twin buttes near its center).
—Stephen Nash, New York Times, 25 July 2017
See All Example Sentences for cipher
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cipher
Noun
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My memoir was built of gaps, juxtaposition, weird little nothings.—
Cheri Lucas Rowlands,
Longreads,
16 Dec. 2024
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But nothings more peaceful than tomorrow to a man going through pain today.—
Becca Longmire,
Peoplemag,
22 Feb. 2024
Noun
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More importantly, the narrative explores both sides of the conflict from the POV of grunts and 'nobodies' trying to navigate the post-Civil War state of the galaxy before the fighting stops.—
Fran Ruiz,
Space.com,
4 Aug. 2025
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None of these nobodies is performing like Grimes just yet, and until someone does Grier better get active trying to find a handful of veteran cornerbacks whom this team can call on, and sign to patch up the weakest unit on the team.—
Omar Kelly,
Miami Herald,
30 May 2025
Verb
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When a nuclear missile is launched at the United States, White House officials scramble to figure who's responsible and how to respond in a drama featuring Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso and Jared Harris.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
3 Sep. 2025
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And both backs figure to get plenty of opportunities again this week against Eastern Washington.—
Shaun Goodwin,
Idaho Statesman,
2 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Strong technical leaders don't just translate between the world of zeros and ones and the world of dollars and cents.—
Meeky Hwang,
Forbes.com,
25 Aug. 2025
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That is, they are composed of on/off switches strung together in logic circuits that process data as a string of binary ones and zeros.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
21 Aug. 2025
Noun
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The shrub grows 6 to 15 feet tall; there are dwarf, medium-sized, and tall varieties.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
24 Aug. 2025
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The dwarf galaxies of other galaxies, such as Centaurus A — the product of a major merger between two large galaxies — also orbit in a plane.—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
22 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The payments are calculated to increase by 5% every year.—
George Petras,
USA Today,
4 Sep. 2025
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Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania professor who specializes in homelessness and housing policy, calculated that the number of men older than 60 living in shelters roughly tripled from 2000 to 2020.—
Felice J. Freyer,
Miami Herald,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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In that matchup, recently crowned UFC welterweight champ Jack Della Maddalena looks to stave off the charge of ex-UFC lightweight kingpin Islam Makhachev.—
Trent Reinsmith,
Forbes.com,
4 Sep. 2025
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Next, tweens can pick a lightweight, hypoallergenic moisturizer with a texture that appeals to them.—
Khanh T.L. Tran,
USA Today,
29 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Previous designs have been used in specialized applications, such as connecting computing units inside data centers where speed is critical.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
3 Sep. 2025
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Those numbers were more than sufficient to land Flock on Forbes’ 2025 Cloud 100 list of the top private cloud computing companies.—
Thomas Brewster,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cipher.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cipher. Accessed 8 Sep. 2025.
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