indecipherable

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   impossible or extremely difficult to read or decode

   Rain had made the address on the envelope indecipherable.

2. 2
   adj

   impossible or extremely difficult to understand or interpret

   Without a legend, the densely marked chart was indecipherable.

Formed from the negative prefix in- + decipherable. Decipher is built on cipher, which entered English through Old French and Medieval Latin from Arabic ṣifr ("zero, empty"). The idea developed from interpreting numerical ciphers to reading any encoded or obscure material.

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