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Synonyms

unscramble

American  
[uhn-skram-buhl] / ʌnˈskræm bəl /

verb (used with object)

  • unscrambles,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • unscrambled,
    past participle,  past
  • unscrambling
    present participle
  1. to bring out of a scrambled condition; reduce to order or intelligibility.

  2. Also to make (a scrambled radio or telephonic message) comprehensible by systematically tuning the receiver to the frequencies used in transmission.


unscramble British  
/ ʌnˈskræmbəl /

verb

  1. to resolve from confusion or disorderliness

  2. to restore (a scrambled message) to an intelligible form

"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

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Inflected Forms

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Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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Etymology

Origin of unscramble

First recorded in 1915–20; un- 2 + scramble

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

And at this point, it may not be possible as a practical matter to unscramble the eggs.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 9, 2024

The researchers first worked to unscramble the signals from Mr. Oskam’s brain.

From NewsForKids.net May 30, 2023

Even the operator of the app cannot unscramble messages as they pass across systems - they can be decrypted only by the people in the chat.

From BBC Apr. 17, 2023

“The people that win are the people who make the most attempts, the ones who are able to unscramble what it is that they’re asking faster than anybody else,” Davies said.

From Seattle Times May 9, 2022

My eyes could barely unscramble what they saw.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

Now, she does exercises with Sunny in which she unscrambles sentences and puts the words in the right order.

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 18, 2026

“I spit it out and she unscrambles it. She does a great job.”

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 15, 2022

At the bottom of this page are 36 of the letter sets from the long-out-of-print “Big Book of ScrabbleGrams”; each unscrambles into a real word, but of course we don’t care about that.

From Washington Post Mar. 31, 2022

End-to-end encryption is technology that scrambles messages on your phone and unscrambles them only on the recipients’ phones, which means anyone who intercepts the messages in between can’t read them.

From Scientific American Aug. 9, 2021

"Wouldn't It Be Nice/You Still Believe in Me" , the line runs, before our brain unscrambles the rest of the offering, "God Only Knows", "Sloop John B" and the others.

From The Guardian Oct. 16, 2010

Infecting smartphones or other gadgets being used for WhatsApp messages meant the content of messages encrypted during transmission could be accessed after they were unscrambled.

From Barron's Oct. 18, 2025

Only the recipient can see the unscrambled message.

From Fox News Jan. 11, 2021

Some contained codes, devised by Anson Stager, general manager of U.S. military telegraphs, that inserted decoy words or arbitraries into messages that were unscrambled with cipher charts.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 19, 2016

However, the message can only be unscrambled with the aid of the private key held securely by the recipient of the message.

From New York Times Mar. 1, 2016

When Johnny saw Sissy, his poor mixed-up brain unscrambled for a minute and he grabbed her arm.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

With the imminent publication of his final book titled "Magpie Murders," eagle-eyed readers would realize that unscrambling the first letters for each novel in the detective series would spell out "AN ANAGRAM."

From Salon Nov. 21, 2022

Then, once one knows the colors, it’s simply a matter of unscrambling one’s guesses until they’re in the right order.

From Slate Feb. 5, 2022

One group completed a task that included unscrambling words in sentences containing words such as “analyze” and “rational,” which primed them to think more analytically.

From Scientific American Nov. 23, 2020

But coded messages are harder to discern, particularly by policy teams that have not invested in unscrambling them.

From The Verge Aug. 20, 2020

On the first of March of the year 1815, when the representatives of the allies were ready to begin the work of unscrambling the map of Europe, Napoleon suddenly landed near Cannes.

From The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon

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