decipher
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.
to interpret by the use of a key, as something written in cipher: to decipher a secret message.
Obsolete. to depict; portray.
Origin of decipher
1Other words for decipher
Other words from decipher
- de·ci·pher·a·ble, adjective
- de·ci·pher·a·bil·i·ty, noun
- de·ci·pher·er, noun
- de·ci·pher·ment, noun
- un·de·ci·pher·a·ble, adjective
- un·de·ci·pher·a·bly, adverb
- un·de·ci·phered, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use decipher in a sentence
Both types of systems seem to converge on the same computational solutions, which may mean that deep networks could be increasingly useful tools for deciphering the brain’s secrets.
In simpler terms, it can help Google to decipher the context of words in a search query.
SEO Trends 2021: What every marketer should know | Amanda Jerelyn | December 23, 2020 | Search Engine WatchYet the ease of sharing and reposting such content has made it harder to decipher what can be trusted.
As the committee meets to decipher a season in which Clemson lost at Notre Dame in double overtime with Lawrence absent because of a positive test, the need for the committee to hire a sommelier — a masked one, of course — seems ever more aching.
In this unhinged year, the CFP selection committee faces an even more indecipherable task | Chuck Culpepper | November 23, 2020 | Washington PostIn a visual memory challenge that required 100 tasks, the algorithm was able to keep its previous memories while deciphering new images.
How a Memory Quirk of the Human Brain Can Galvanize AI | Shelly Fan | September 28, 2020 | Singularity Hub
On the walls are still decipherable Scriptural texts in black letter.
Warwickshire | Clive HollandThe first page is entirely gone, and the second page so erased and torn that it is only decipherable here and there.
Lafcadio Hearn | Nina H. KennardThe decipherable part of the inscription tells us that he was a scribe, highly placed, and in great favour with the king.
A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. II (of 2) | Georges PerrotThe letters are all very much worn, so that the pictures in many instances are barely decipherable.
Old Picture Books | Alfred W. PollardThe real aims and objects of the Bond are as decipherable to-day as they were three years or ten years ago.
British Dictionary definitions for decipher
/ (dɪˈsaɪfə) /
to determine the meaning of (something obscure or illegible)
to convert from code into plain text; decode
Derived forms of decipher
- decipherable, adjective
- decipherability, noun
- decipherer, noun
- decipherment, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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