1. A device or program routine that converts coded data back to its original form. This can mean changing unreadable or encrypted codes into readable text or changing one code to another, although the latter type of decoding is usually referred to as conversion. Compare conversion.
2. In electronics and hardware, a type of circuit that produces one or more selected output signals based on the combination of input signals it receives.
A machine that converts a coded text into ordinary language.
In computing, an electronic circuit used to select one of several possible data pathways. Decoders are, for example, used to direct data to individual memory locations within a computer's immediate access memory.