decipher

English

Alternative forms

• decypher

Etymology

As decypher, but not retaining the y from the Old French etyma of cipher (cyfre, cyffre); the i spelling tends to be preferred etymologically, being consistent with its cognates, the French déchiffrer and the Italian decifrare, and with their common ancestor, the Medieval Latin cifra, cifera, ciphra.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsaɪfə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪfə(ɹ)

Verb

decipher (third-person singular simple present deciphers, present participle deciphering, simple past and past participle deciphered)

1. (transitive) To decode or decrypt a code or cipher to plain text.
2. (transitive) To read text that is almost illegible or obscure
3. (transitive) To make sense of a complex situation.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 13:

     Truly, we need human infirmity to teach us human nature, and that to Louis had been as a sealed book; he had only seen the coloured and gilded outside: too late he had to decipher the rough and gloomy page within.

4. (transitive) To find a solution to a problem.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• decipherability
• decipherable
• decipherment
• indecipherability
• indecipherable
• undecipherable

Related terms

• decrypt

Translations

to decode or decrypt a code or cipher

• Bulgarian: дешифрирам (bg) (dešifriram)
• Catalan: desxifrar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 解碼／解码 (zh) (jiěmǎ), 解讀／解读 (zh) (jiědú)

• Czech: rozluštit
• Dutch: ontcijferen (nl)
• Esperanto: malĉifri
• Finnish: purkaa (fi), murtaa (fi), avata (viesti)
• French: déchiffrer (fr)
• German: dechiffrieren (de), entschlüsseln (de)
• Greek: αποκρυπτογραφώ (el) (apokryptografó)
• Icelandic: dulráða
• Japanese: 解読する (ja) (かいどくする, kaidoku suru)
• Kazakh: дешифрлеу (deşifrleu)
• Korean: 해독(解讀)하다 (haedokhada)
• Luxembourgish: dechiffréieren
• Polish: rozszyfrowywać impf, rozszyfrować (pl) pf
• Portuguese: decifrar (pt)
• Russian: расшифро́вывать (ru) impf (rasšifróvyvatʹ), расшифрова́ть (ru) pf (rasšifrovátʹ)
• Spanish: descifrar (es), decodificar (es)
• Swedish: dechiffrera (sv), avkoda (sv), dekryptera (sv), läsa (sv), tyda (sv)
• Turkish: deşifre etmek (tr)
• Ukrainian: розшифро́вувати impf (rozšyfróvuvaty), розшифрува́ти pf (rozšyfruváty)

to read illegible or obscure text

• Bulgarian: разчитам (bg) (razčitam)
• Catalan: desxifrar (ca)
• Finnish: tavata (fi)
• German: entziffern (de)
• Greek: αποκρυπτογραφώ (el) (apokryptografó)
• Polish: rozszyfrowywać impf, rozszyfrować (pl) pf
• Spanish: descifrar (es), interpretar (es)
• Swedish: läsa (sv), tyda (sv), dechiffrera (sv)

to find a solution

• Finnish: ratkaista (fi)
• German: entschlüsseln (de)
• Portuguese: decifrar (pt), resolver (pt)
• Spanish: resolver (es), descifrar (es)

Noun

decipher (plural deciphers)

1. A decipherment; a decoding.
   • 1837, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, John Gurwood, The Dispatches of Field Marshall the Duke of Wellington, K.G.:

     I enclose a letter which I received yesterday evening from the Marques de Monsalud, containing the decipher of a letter from the King to the Comte d'Erlon. I wish that the Marques had sent the ciphered letter here […]

Anagrams

• ciphered