**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˌɪn.dɪˈsaɪ.fɚ.ə.bəl/
**IPA (UK):** /ˌɪn.dɪˈsaɪ.fər.ə.bəl/
**Frequency rank:** 52725

## Meanings
1. impossible or extremely difficult to read or decode
2. impossible or extremely difficult to understand or interpret

## Examples
- Rain had made the address on the envelope indecipherable.
- Without a legend, the densely marked chart was indecipherable.

## Synonyms
- illegible
- unreadable
- incomprehensible
- obscure

## Antonyms
- decipherable
- legible
- intelligible

## Derived Forms
- indecipherability
- indecipherableness
- indecipherably

## Related Forms
- decipher
- cipher
- undecipherable

## Etymology
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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