analyze

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To study something carefully in detail in order to understand it.

   You should analyze a poem line by line to grasp its meaning.

2. 2
   verb

   To examine something to find out what it is made of.

   Scientists analyzed the water to check for pollution.

Probably formed within English, by back-formation, or by haplology from analysis + -ize, or from Middle French analyser, from the noun analyse, from Medieval Latin analysis, from Ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις (análusis, “a breaking up, a loosening, releasing”), from ἀναλύω (analúō, “to unloose, release, set free”), from ἀνά (aná, “on, up, above, throughout”) + λύσις (lúsis, “a loosening”), from λύω (lúō, “to unfasten”).

Topics