Wiktionary

analyze

English edit

Alternative forms edit

  • analyse (Commonwealth including sometimes Canada)

Etymology edit

Back-formation from analysis, from French analyser, from 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”).

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

analyze (third-person singular simple present analyzes, present participle analyzing, simple past and past participle analyzed) (American spelling)

  1. (transitive) To subject to analysis.
  2. (transitive) To resolve (anything complex) into its elements.
    analyze a problem
  3. (transitive) To separate into the constituent parts, for the purpose of an examination of each separately.
  4. (transitive) To examine in such a manner as to ascertain the elements or nature of the thing examined; as, to analyze a fossil substance, to analyze a sentence or a word, or to analyze an action to ascertain its morality.

Usage notes edit

  • According to the third edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, both analyze and the British spelling analyse are equally indefensible from an etymological perspective. The correct but now impossible form should have been *analysize.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

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