Analyze

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈæn.É™.laɪz/
• Rhymes: -aɪz

Alternative forms

• analyse Commonwealth except Canada

Origin

Back-formation from {{3}}, from French analyser, from analyse, from Medieval Latin analysis, from Ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις (analusis, "a breaking up, a loosening, releasing"), from ἀναλύω (analuō, "to unloose, release, set free"), from ἀνά (ana, "on, up, above, throughout") + λύσις (lusis, "a loosening"), from λύω (luō, "to unfasten").

Full definition of analyze

Verb

1. (transitive) To subject to analysis.
2. (transitive) To resolve (anything complex) into its elements.
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

• analyzable, analysable
• analyzability, analysability
• analyzer, analyser
• psychoanalyze, psychoanalyse

Related terms

• analysis
• analyst
• analytic
  analytical