dissection

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

• noun The act or an instance of dissecting.
• noun Something that has been dissected, such as a tissue specimen under study.
• noun A detailed examination or analysis.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In botany, the condition of being dissected. See dissected.
• noun In geology, the erosion of a land-surface into numerous irregular valleys. See dissect, 4.
• noun The operation of cutting open or separating into parts. Specifically
• noun The process of cutting into parts an animal or a plant, or a part of one, in such a way as to show its structure or to separate one or more of its organs or tissues for examination: as, the dissection of a dog; the dissection of a hand or a flower.
• noun The act of separating anything into distinct or elementary parts for the purpose of critical examination; treatment or consideration of something in detail or point by point.
• noun A segment; a division; a part.

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

• noun The act of dissecting an animal or plant.
• noun Fig.: The act of separating or dividing for the purpose of critical examination.
• noun Anything dissected; especially, some part, or the whole, of an animal or plant dissected so as to exhibit the structure; an anatomical so prepared.
• noun a poisoned wound incurred during the dissection of a dead body.

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

• noun The act of dissecting, or something dissected
• noun A minute and detailed examination or analysis

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

• noun detailed critical analysis or examination one part at a time (as of a literary work)
• noun a minute and critical analysis
• noun cutting so as to separate into pieces