decypher
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.15 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
noun
Etymology
As decipher, but retaining the y from the Old French etyma of cipher (cyfre, cyffre); the i spelling tends to be preferred etymologically, being consistent with its cognates, the French déchiffrer and the Italian decifrare, and with their common ancestor, the Medieval Latin cifra, cifera, ciphra. By surface analysis, de- + cypher.