decipher
Americanverb (used with object)
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deciphers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
deciphered,
past participle, past
-
deciphering
present participle
-
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
-
decipherssimple
-
have decipheredperfect
-
has decipheredperfect
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am decipheringprogressive
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are decipheringprogressive
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is decipheringprogressive
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have been decipheringperfect progressive
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has been decipheringperfect progressive
Past
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decipheredsimple
-
had decipheredperfect
-
was decipheringprogressive
-
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
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
No, multiple academics have attempted to decipher the meaning behind the mightily adorable meow of the domestic house cat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Dr Helen Paul, an economic historian at the University of Southampton, was one of the experts brought in to decipher 18th Century ledgers.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
With the boxes colored in and filled with symbols, it was like a secret language, a code only knitters could decipher.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
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
It was there that that poetry arose which modern satiety seeks for, the poetry of reverie and reflection, which penetrates man's heart and deciphers his most intimate thoughts and vaguest wishes.
From The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times by Alfred Biese
For decades, they remained largely untouched, but researchers have now deciphered them, uncovering texts that range from magical rituals to royal records and everyday administrative notes.
From Science Daily ● May 5, 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
Then a law-enforcement officer wrote a new computer program that finally deciphered the information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025
I often thought it was because he didn’t exactly want them deciphered, or that he wanted to maintain a level of constant ambiguity.
From Slate ● Nov. 17, 2025
After a while I deciphered the faint outlines of an unfamiliar window.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
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
But there is no standardized public key for deciphering them; codes vary among plants and products, and the absence of an obvious “TF” is no guarantee Taylor Farms wasn’t involved.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
Turing played a crucial role in the Allies' victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two by helping to crack codes and deciphering the infamous Enigma machine at Bletchley Park.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
But the predicament we face in deciphering the Venetian statistics is hardly unique.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
I knew the secret to deciphering the riddle must involve the wrapper in some way, but I still couldn’t sort out how.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
