Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To examine methodically by separating into parts and studying their interrelations.
  • transitive verb Chemistry To make a chemical analysis of.
  • transitive verb Mathematics To make a mathematical analysis of.
  • transitive verb To psychoanalyze.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To take to pieces; resolve into elements; separate, as a compound into its parts; ascertain the constituents or causes of; ascertain the characters or structure of, as a plant: as, to analyze a mineral, a sentence, or an argument; to analyze light by separating it into its prismatic constituents.
  • Hence To examine critically, so as to bring out the essential elements or give the essence of: as, to analyze a poem.
  • In mathematics, to submit (a problem) to treatment by algebra, and especially by the calculus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To subject to analysis; to resolve (anything complex) into its elements; to separate into the constituent parts, for the purpose of an examination of each separately; to examine in such a manner as to ascertain the elements or nature of the thing examined; to consider in detail in order to discover essential features or meaning
  • transitive verb make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features.
  • transitive verb subject to psychoanalytic treatment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To subject to analysis.
  • verb transitive To resolve (anything complex) into its elements.
  • verb transitive To separate into the constituent parts, for the purpose of an examination of each separately.
  • verb 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.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb break down into components or essential features
  • verb make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
  • verb subject to psychoanalytic treatment
  • verb consider in detail and subject to an analysis in order to discover essential features or meaning

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from French analyser, from analyse, analysis, from Greek analusis; see analysis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back formation from analysis, 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").

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Examples

  • One could analyze from a biochemical perspective and focus on interactions on a molecular level.

    Alice In Wonderland official trailer 2009

  • Never in the history of this country we have a intelligent President, Smart and Honest, STOP GOP just making noise because if we analyze from the last past 60 years, YOU REPUBLICANS have been making big mass and infecting un-educated citizens all over, with this technique of fear and intimidation.

    Pawlently takes aim at Obama's address to students 2009

  • Nguyen said one of the key elements the panel has been trying to analyze is the safety culture at the companies involved in the April 20 disaster.

    Oil Spill Panel: Transocean Thwarts Efforts To Get Critical Documents, Witness AP 2010

  • And if that's the mistake, then you analyze from the mistake to who's at fault.

    Wolfowitz: The Exit Interviews 2005

  • And if that's the mistake, then you analyze from the mistake to who's at fault.

    Wolfowitz: The Exit Interviews 2005

  • Steinberg, now Red Sox executive vice president, says, "I don't know how he applies the mental power he has, but his intellect, his ability to analyze, is extraordinary."

    USATODAY.com - Epstein getting it together in Boston 2004

  • If you analyze during the game, you could agree with the referee; if you analyze from the TV, you could not agree with the referee.

    USATODAY.com - Notes: Germany relieved, refs second-guessed 2002

  • Now, this tendency to analyze is obviously more dangerous for children than for adults, because, from lack of experience and knowledge of psychology, the child's analysis is incomplete.

    The Art of the Story-Teller 1915

  • According to an outline released by the Education Ministry, Social Justice 12 is not a course on homosexuality, but one meant to “raise students’ awareness of social injustice, to enable them to analyze from a social justice perspective, and to provide them with knowledge, skills and an ethical framework to advocate for a socially just world.”

    2008 October 18 « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2008

  • According to an outline released by the Education Ministry, Social Justice 12 is not a course on homosexuality, but one meant to “raise students’ awareness of social injustice, to enable them to analyze from a social justice perspective, and to provide them with knowledge, skills and an ethical framework to advocate for a socially just world.”

    The Correns Are At It Again « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2008

Comments

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  • Scientists must analyze problems throughly.

    April 7, 2007