substitution cipher
noun
: a cipher in which the letters of the plaintext are systematically replaced by substitute letters compare transposition cipher
Examples of substitution cipher in a Sentence
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The new script is, wait for it, encrypted using what is known as a shifting substitution cipher rather than being in plain text.
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Davey Winder, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
Indeed, a simple substitution cipher like this almost always caves to the kind of frequency analysis Holmes used.
—PCMAG, 22 Aug. 2023
Related Stories To solve the first two passages, codebreakers used vigenere, which is what cryptologists call a polyalphabetic substitution cipher system.
—Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, 3 Feb. 2020
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Davey Winder, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
Indeed, a simple substitution cipher like this almost always caves to the kind of frequency analysis Holmes used.
—PCMAG, 22 Aug. 2023
Related Stories To solve the first two passages, codebreakers used vigenere, which is what cryptologists call a polyalphabetic substitution cipher system.
—Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, 3 Feb. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Substitution cipher.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/substitution%20cipher. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
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