Definition of serpents in English

Wiktionary

serpents (Noun)
Plural of serpent.

Part of speech

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serpents, noun, plural of serpent.

WordNet

Noun Plural: serpents
serpent - an obsolete bass cornet; resembles a snake
serpent - a firework that moves in serpentine manner when ignited
serpent - limbless scaly elongate reptile; some are venomous
		snake, ophidian
		diapsid, diapsid reptile reptile having a pair of openings in the skull behind each eye
		ophidia, serpentes, suborder ophidia, suborder serpentes snakes
		colubrid, colubrid snake mostly harmless temperate-to-tropical terrestrial or arboreal or aquatic snakes
		blind snake, worm snake wormlike burrowing snake of warm regions having vestigial eyes
		constrictor any of various large nonvenomous snakes that kill their prey by crushing it in its coils
		elapid, elapid snake any of numerous venomous fanged snakes of warmer parts of both hemispheres
		sea snake any of numerous venomous aquatic viviparous snakes having a fin-like tail; of warm littoral seas; feed on fish which they immobilize with quick-acting venom

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Wiktionary

serpent (Noun)
A snake.
serpent (Noun)
An obsolete wind instrument in the brass family, whose shape is suggestive of a snake Wikipedia article .
serpent (Verb)
To wind; to encircle.

Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘

serpent (n.)
Any reptile of the order Ophidia; a snake, especially a large snake. See Illust. under Ophidia.
serpent (n.)
Fig.: A subtle, treacherous, malicious person.
serpent (n.)
A species of firework having a serpentine motion as it passess through the air or along the ground.
serpent (n.)
The constellation Serpens.
serpent (n.)
A bass wind instrument, of a loud and coarse tone, formerly much used in military bands, and sometimes introduced into the orchestra; -- so called from its form.
serpent (v. i.)
To wind like a serpent; to crook about; to meander.
serpent (v. t.)
To wind; to encircle.

Chambers DictionaryChamber's 20th Century Dictionary 📕

serpent
sėr′pent, n. any member of the genus Ophidia, more popularly known as snakes—any reptile without feet which moves by means of its ribs and scales: a snake: a person treacherous or malicious: one of the constellations in the northern hemisphere: (mus.) a bass musical wind-instrument, entirely obsolete except in a few Continental churches, a tapered leather-covered wooden tube 8 feet long, twisted about like a serpent.—v.i. to wind along: to meander.—v.t. to girdle, as with the coils of a serpent.—ns. Serpentā′ria, the Virginia snakeroot; Serpentā′rius, the secretary-birds: the constellation Ophiuchus; Ser′pent-charm′er, one who charms or has power over serpents; Ser′pent-charm′ing, the art of charming or governing serpents; Ser′pent-cū′cumber, a long-fruited variety of the musk-melon; Ser′pent-dē′ity, the god of the Ophites, Abraxas; Ser′pent-eat′er, the secretary-bird: a wild goat in India and Cashmere; Ser′penteau, an iron circle with spikes to which squibs are attached, used in a breach.—n.pl. Serpent′es, the second order of the third class of limbless reptiles.—ns. Ser′pent-fish, the snake-fish; Ser′pent-grass, the alpine bistort.—adjs. Serpent′iform, ophidian in structure: snake-like; Ser′pentine, resembling a serpent: winding, tortuous: spiral: crooked.—n. a kind of firework: a 16th-cent. form of cannon: a mineral composed of silica and manganese, generally occurring massive, colour some shade of green, also red and brownish-yellow.—v.i. to wind or wriggle like a serpent.—adv. Ser′pentinely.—adjs. Serpentin′ic, Ser′pentinous.—adv. Serpentī′ningly, with a serpentine motion.—v.t. Ser′pentinise, to convert into serpentine.—v.i. Ser′pentise, to wind: meander.—adj. Ser′pent-like, like a serpent.—ns. Ser′pent-liz′ard, a lizard of the genus Seps; Ser′pent-moss, a greenhouse plant from the West Indies; Ser′pentry, serpentine motion: a place infested by serpents: serpents collectively; Ser′pent-star, a brittle star; Ser′pent-stone, snake-stone, adder-stone; Ser′pent's-tongue, the adder's-tongue fern; Ser′pent-tur′tle, an enaliosaur; Ser′pent-withe, a twining plant of tropical America; Ser′pent-wood, an East Indian shrub; Ser′pent-wor′ship, one of the most ancient and widespread forms of primitive religion, and still existing amongst many savage peoples; Sea′-ser′pent (see Sea).—Serpentine verse, a verse which begins and ends with the same word.—The old serpent, Satan. [L. serpens, -entis, pr.p. of serpĕre, to creep; akin to Gr. herpein.]

Wikipedia

cipher
Serpent is a symmetric key block cipher which was the second finalist in the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) contest after Rijndael. Serpent was designed by Ross Anderson, Eli Biham, and Lars Knudsen.

Serpent has a block size of 128 bits and supports a key size of 128, 192 or 256 bits. The cipher is a 32-round substitution-permutation network operating on a block of four 32-bit words. Each round applies one of eight 4-bit to 4-bit S-boxes 32 times in parallel. Serpent was designed so that all operations can be executed in parallel, using 32 1-bit slices. This maximizes parallelism, but also allows use of the extensive cryptanalysis work performed on DES.

Serpent was widely viewed as a more traditional approach to security than the other AES finalists choosing a larger security margin: the designers estimated 16 rounds to be sufficient against known types of attack, but specified 32 rounds as insurance against future progress in cryptanalysis.

The Serpent cipher has not been patented. It is completely placed in the public domain and can be freely used by anyone.

Rijndael vs. Serpent.

The 32 rounds make Serpent more secure than Rijndael; however, Rijndael with 10 rounds is faster and easier to implement for small Block ciphers and on embedded system. For that reason, Rijndael was selected as the winner in the AES competition.

Security.

The XSL attack, if effective and would weaken Serpent (though not as much as it would weaken Rijndael, which became AES). However, many crypt