Verb
decipher (third-person singular simple present deciphers, present participle deciphering, simple past and past participle deciphered)
- (transitive) To convert a code or cipher to plain text.
- Synonyms: decode, decrypt, uncode (rare)
- Antonyms: encipher, encode, encrypt
- Coordinate terms: recipher, recode
- (transitive) To read text that is almost illegible or obscure
- (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.
- (transitive) To find a solution to a problem.
Translations
to decode or decrypt a code or cipher
- Azerbaijani: şifrini açmaq
- Bulgarian: дешифрирам (bg) (dešifriram)
- Catalan: desxifrar (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 解碼/解码 (zh) (jiěmǎ), 解讀/解读 (zh) (jiědú)
- Czech: rozluštit
- Danish: dechifrere, afkode
- 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)
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to read illegible or obscure text
Noun
decipher (plural deciphers)
- 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 […]