decipher
to make out the meaning of (poor or partially obliterated writing, etc.): to decipher a hastily scribbled note.
to discover the meaning of (anything obscure or difficult to trace or understand): to decipher hieroglyphics.
to interpret by the use of a key, as something written in cipher: to decipher a secret message.
Obsolete. to depict; portray.
Origin of decipher
1Other words for decipher
Other words from decipher
- de·ci·pher·a·ble, adjective
- de·ci·pher·a·bil·i·ty, noun
- de·ci·pher·er, noun
- de·ci·pher·ment, noun
- un·de·ci·pher·a·ble, adjective
- un·de·ci·pher·a·bly, adverb
- un·de·ci·phered, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use decipher in a sentence
One of the easier puzzles early in the game finds her needing to decipher the marking on a device that controls the directional orientation of a wooden bridge.
‘Call of the Sea’: Strictly for hardcore puzzlers | Christopher Byrd | January 15, 2021 | Washington PostHe could line up in bunch formations and decipher coverages to understand which route to run and how.
All great QBs are linked with great receivers. Aaron Rodgers finally has his match in Davante Adams. | Adam Kilgore | January 15, 2021 | Washington PostThe size of it — and the pace it’s moving — makes it hard to decipher which directions teams will go in.
The Nationals’ bullpen doesn’t need a makeover. But it could use another arm or two. | Jesse Dougherty | January 14, 2021 | Washington PostOften, they can’t decipher the difference between actual food and scented items like chapstick, potato chip bags, and snack bar wrappers, which can be fatal.
Once you know what happens to food you leave outdoors, you’ll stop doing it | Alisha McDarris | January 14, 2021 | Popular-ScienceThe case of the Sedition Act reveals that the remedy to these problems cannot be to vest authority in any one body, especially the state, to decipher true from false.
What the 1798 Sedition Act got right — and what it means today | Kaitlyn Carter | January 14, 2021 | Washington Post
These are of so remarkable a type as to have puzzled every philologist and paleographer who has attempted their decipherment.
The Swastika | Thomas WilsonIn regard to the history of these monarchies, much light has been obtained from the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions.
An antick motto ran round it, and with eyes and fingers we struggled at the decipherment.
The Golden Age | Kenneth GrahameBefore the decipherment of the cuneiform texts our knowledge of its history, however, was scanty and questionable.
The decipherment of the third system of writing long seemed to baffle the inquirer.
A Primer of Assyriology | Archibald Henry Sayce
British Dictionary definitions for decipher
/ (dɪˈsaɪfə) /
to determine the meaning of (something obscure or illegible)
to convert from code into plain text; decode
Derived forms of decipher
- decipherable, adjective
- decipherability, noun
- decipherer, noun
- decipherment, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Browse