Decipher
/dɪˈsaɪfə(ɹ)/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo convert a code or cipher to plain text.
verbTo read text that is almost illegible or obscure.
Sentence Examples
It took me several hours to decipher it.
Can you decipher the message?
CEFR Practice Quiz
Historians work hard to ____ ancient texts written in unknown scripts.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It took me several hours to ____ it.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 13:
"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 […]"
— 1837, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, John Gurwood, The Dispatches of Field Marshall the Duke of Wellington, K.G.:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Historians work hard to ____ ancient texts written in unknown scripts.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It took me several hours to ____ it.