decipher

• decypher

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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsaɪfə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -aɪfə(r)

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 find a solution to a problem.

• decrypt

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 […]

• ciphered