indecipherable

[ in-di-sahy-fer-uh-buhl ]

adjective

1. not decipherable; illegible.
2. not understandable; incomprehensible.

indecipherable

/ -frəbəl; ˌɪndɪˈsaɪfərəbəl /

adjective

1. not decipherable; illegible

Derived Forms

• ˌindeˈcipherably, adverb
• ˌindeˌcipheraˈbility, noun

Other Words From

• inde·cipher·a·bili·ty inde·cipher·a·ble·ness noun
• inde·cipher·a·bly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of indecipherable¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; in- ³ + decipherable ( def )

Example Sentences

The defining complaint about the sacked Dutchman was that after two-and-a-bit seasons the football was still formless and the tactical direction indecipherable.

From BBC

You can do that through cheap tricks, or you can see that, despite the importance of place and the deep meaning rural people have in particular, their concerns, anxieties, and hopes are not indecipherable.

From Salon

Tuesday night, he seemed to scramble his words to an indecipherable point while speaking to Fox News about pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations.

From Salon

He said this, as well as cash incentives or long, sometimes "indecipherable" privacy policies and terms, can make the decision more difficult and imbalanced when deciding whether or not we as individuals should part with our data to use a service.

From BBC

All of the previously known moonquakes came from the long-period instrument; the short-period data sets contained so much noise, generated by temperature swings between the lunar days and nights, and errors from the radio transmission of the data, that they were indecipherable to 1980s technology.

From Science Magazine

Related Words

• cryptic
• illegible