analyze

English Online Dictionary. What means analyze‎? What does analyze mean?

English

Alternative forms

• analyse (Commonwealth, sometimes Canada)

Etymology

Probably a back-formation from analysis, or from Middle 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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæn.ə.laɪz/
• (General American, Standard Canadian) IPA^(key): /ˈæn.əˌlaɪz/, [ˈɛən.əˌlaɪz]
  • (Western Canadian) IPA^(key): [ˈæ(ː)nəˌlaɪz]
  • (Maritime Canadian) IPA^(key): [ˈɑnələi̯z], [ˈanələi̯z]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈæn.ə.lɑɪz/, /ˈæn.lɑɪz/
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ənəˈlajz/, /ˈanəlajz/, /-s/
• Hyphenation: an‧a‧lyze

Verb

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

• 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

Related terms

• analysis
• analyst
• analytic / analytical

Translations

References