decipher

verb

1 he was the only one who could decipher the code:

decode, decrypt, break, work out, solve, interpret, translate, construe, explain;

make sense of, make head or tail of, get to the bottom of, unravel, find the key to, find the answer to, throw light on;

informal crack, figure out;

British, informal twig, suss, suss out.

▷antonyms encode.

2 the writing was rather wobbly and hard to decipher:

make out, discern, perceive, see, read, follow, fathom, penetrate, make sense of, interpret, understand, comprehend, apprehend, grasp;

untangle, disentangle, sort out, piece together.