The act of writing in cipher or encoding messages with secret codes; also historically meant doing arithmetic calculations.
Present participle of 'cipher,' combining the Arabic root 'sifr' with the English gerund ending '-ing.' Older usage reflected that ciphering meant 'doing mathematics' in schools.
In 17th-century schools, 'ciphering' was arithmetic class—because doing sums with Arabic numerals (containing zero) was considered as exotic and difficult as breaking codes; the association stuck for centuries!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.