decipher

To convert a code or cipher to plain text.transitive

To read text that is almost illegible or obscure.transitive

To make sense of a complex situation.transitive

• 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.

To find a solution to a problem.transitive

A decipherment; a decoding.

• 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 […]