dissect
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to cut open and examine the structure of (a dead animal or plant)
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(tr) to examine critically and minutely
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To cut apart or separate body tissues or organs, especially for anatomical study.
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In surgery, to separate different anatomical structures along natural lines by dividing the connective tissue framework.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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dissectionnoun
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dissectornoun
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redissectverb (used with object)
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dissectibleadjective
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self-dissectingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dissectsimple
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dissectssimple
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have dissectedperfect
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has dissectedperfect
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am dissectingprogressive
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are dissectingprogressive
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is dissectingprogressive
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have been dissectingperfect progressive
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has been dissectingperfect progressive
Past
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dissectedsimple
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had dissectedperfect
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was dissectingprogressive
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were dissectingprogressive
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had been dissectingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dissect
1600–10; < Latin dissectus (past participle of dissecāre to cut up), equivalent to dis- dis- 1 + sec- cut + -tus past participle suffix
Explanation
When you dissect a frog in science class, you cut it open to look at its inner organs. To dissect is to break something down to look at its parts. Dissecting something allows you to look at it closely and understand it better. If your soccer team loses a match, you might want to dissect the game afterward to try to find exactly how and when things went wrong. Television analysts will often dissect a political speech to understand what was really being said, how true the statements were, and how well it was done.
Vocabulary lists containing dissect
"Fine?" Vocabulary from the short story
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
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Thirteen Reasons Why
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Some are by amateur forensic analysts and would-be internet sleuths with podcast names like The Murder Men that dissect the killing as if it’s a 1980s cold case.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2026
One is that the market is slow to react to pure news that has “high quantitative intensity” — articles that dissect a company’s income or balance sheet, for example.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 4, 2026
"His match plans always worked. He would dissect the opponents and always find solutions with his analysis. It was phenomenal," he told Spox.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
The kids took to TikTok and Instagram to dissect every awful thing Banks and the rest did in the name of goosing ratings, with many wondering why its audience barely blinked at its endless exploitation.
From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2026
Yet as weird as these singularities behave, they were no longer mysterious to mathematicians, who were learning to dissect the infinite.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
She dissects those feelings of inadequacy with pitch-black humour on In My Room.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
Its current season dissects “An American Tragedy,” which I haven’t read.
From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2026
As he does in the book, the legendary actor dissects how he approached the role, adding a digression about Joseph Stalin being scariest when he went quiet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2025
To reveal how all production processes work and illuminate the choreography of efficiency, “Origins” dissects a variety of examples, including the early production of nails, books, lightbulbs and cars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025
Not that she dissects and ponders the dusty mechanical bits of her miserable life’s curse.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
The German creator of the controversial "Body Worlds" exhibitions of dissected human and animal bodies, Gunther von Hagens, has died at age 81, his family said Monday.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Gunther von Hagens, the creator of the controversial "Body Worlds" exhibitions where dissected human and animal bodies were displayed, has died at the age of 81, according to his family.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
When the trailer for the adaptation premiered, Lesa Rubin, 60, and her daughter Katy Tometich, 34, dissected it together.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Mastick and her team opened 178 cans and carefully dissected the preserved fish, counting tiny parasitic worms known as anisakids embedded in the flesh.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 1, 2026
Under that tarp, wearing space suits, they dissected any small animals they had trapped, looking for signs of Marburg virus.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
The Democratic Party found itself trapped in a similar dynamic earlier this month, when the Democratic National Committee released a long-awaited, 192-page report dissecting the 2024 loss.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2026
Her latest single, Praying Mantis, which released this week, has once again made her a talking point, with fans dissecting the dark, hypnotic track online.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
But investors were already dissecting the summations of the talks issued by the two countries afterward.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
Here, trading is reimagined as a sport, complete with play-by-play commentators dissecting every tick of the digital-assets market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
With the suspicious attention of a diamond merchant he examined the banana meticulously, dissecting it with a special scalpel, weighing the pieces on a pharmacist's scale, and calculating its breadth with a gunsmith's calipers.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
