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decipher. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
decipher, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
decipher in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
decipher you have here. The definition of the word
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English
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. By surface analysis, de- + cipher.
Pronunciation
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.
Derived terms
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 […]
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