decipher
Americanverb (used with object)
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deciphers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
deciphered,
past participle, past
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deciphering
present participle
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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.
- Synonyms:
- explain, unravel, solve, comprehend
-
to interpret by the use of a key, as something written in cipher.
to decipher a secret message.
-
Obsolete. to depict; portray.
verb
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to determine the meaning of (something obscure or illegible)
-
to convert from code into plain text; decode
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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decipherabilitynoun
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decipherernoun
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deciphermentnoun
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decipherableadjective
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undecipherableadjective
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undecipheredadjective
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undecipherablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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deciphersimple
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decipherssimple
-
have decipheredperfect
-
has decipheredperfect
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am decipheringprogressive
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are decipheringprogressive
-
is decipheringprogressive
-
have been decipheringperfect progressive
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has been decipheringperfect progressive
Past
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decipheredsimple
-
had decipheredperfect
-
was decipheringprogressive
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were decipheringprogressive
-
had been decipheringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of decipher
First recorded in 1520–30; translation of Middle French déchiffrer; equivalent to de- + cipher
Explanation
Decipher means translate from code, or more generally, figure out. If you can’t decipher your teacher's writing, it means you can't read it. You might feel like you're being asked to decipher a code. During World War II, the Nazis used a machine called the Enigma to encode secret messages. An operator would type the message with a keyboard, which would activate a set of rotors, giving each letter a different value. The code was difficult for the Allies to crack, but eventually the code was deciphered by the British, hastening the end of the war.
Vocabulary lists containing decipher
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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:
“I couldn’t quite hear what was happening. I couldn’t quite decipher what I was seeing. I was like, is this part of it or is this something else?” she recalled.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
The competition offered a $700,000 Grand Prize to the first person who could decipher four passages containing at least 140 characters each from two Herculaneum scrolls imaged with X-ray CT.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
Body-language and facial-expression experts regularly claim to be able to decipher, for instance, the unspoken relationships between celebrities on the red carpet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
It’s looking like a year where the winners will be easy to decipher, according to awards prognosticators, which includes The Times’ award columnist Glenn Whipp.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Chandresh cannot decipher any of it, cannot even tell if the marks are broken into words or simply continuous strings of motifs.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Cathy, meanwhile, deciphers the key to life through Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” a story about a girl like her who survives an upside-down world.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
Ms. Allen traces pen names, decodes handwriting and deciphers marginalia in Richmond’s correspondence and books.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The fact that the bat brainstem processes various complex acoustic signals differently can also help scientists to understand how the brain deciphers and processes complex human speech.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2024
She studies for the driver’s license test with them, deciphers public transportation for them and most of all just lets them know she is here to listen and help.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2023
The text he deciphers is written large, written across the face of the continent, written in mountain-chains and ocean depths, and in the piled strata of the globe.
From Time and Change by John Burroughs
Only a small number of the charred scrolls from Herculaneum's Villa of the Papyri have so far been virtually opened and deciphered.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
Signal's end-to-end encryption means that any sent message travels in a scrambled form and can only be deciphered by the end user.
From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026
But the point for Kagan in bringing up this legislative history was merely to provide “yet more proof” of statutory meaning already deciphered through “straight-up statutory construction.”
From Slate ● Mar. 4, 2026
The data turned out to be essential to cracking the case, the people said, a breakthrough that happened only recently when a tech-savvy law-enforcement officer wrote a new computer program that finally deciphered the information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 14, 2025
Alas, the carvings were now too weathered to be deciphered.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Nor is there anything inherently noble about making employees spend eight hours deciphering orders shouted through crackling speakers while the ice-cream machine is down and a small diplomatic crisis is unfolding in the PlayPlace.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Come early to mingle with the cast, in character, of course, who may or may not need your help in deciphering some puzzles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
The bots also weren’t great at deciphering things like maps.
From MarketWatch ● May 13, 2026
But he doesn’t routinely recommend male prenatals, he said, citing limited studies for men, unlike for women, as well as challenges deciphering between brands in an industry not vigorously regulated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
Now that the location of the Jade Key was public knowledge, deciphering the Quatrain and figuring out how to obtain the key was relatively easy.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
