dissect
Americanverb (used with object)
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dissects,
present (3rd person singular)
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dissected,
past participle, past
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dissecting
present participle
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
Voters, he said, don’t dissect candidates’ identities and attributes the way political professionals do.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 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
Commentators spend time trying to dissect the reactions of those within it.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
He even imagines a local doctor dissecting the chigger, the smallest creature visible to the human eye—and thus of course impossible to dissect.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Within the confines of a fairly conventional prison drama, McMau dissects an anonymous nobody who discovers that, both in prison and in life, there are consequences for not taking sides.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
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
Like any kind of fandom, HahaYes dissects each and every seemingly meaningless Musk tweet, searching desperately for hidden meaning to a point of near-delusion.
From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2025
He has impressed with the way he dissects football and thinks about the game, but also sometimes comes off as easily irritable.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2024
Not that she dissects and ponders the dusty mechanical bits of her miserable life’s curse.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
Joseph Fransen, the study’s chief author, told the Commission that he took inspiration from the federal government’s 9/11 after-action report, which dissected mistakes leading up to the terrorist attack.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
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
Just like when Swift releases new music and her lyrics are dissected for any hints about her personal life, her legion of fans around the world have been scavenging for clues to her nuptials.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
The bodies of women were sometimes dissected but rarely reported.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 21, 2026
In a single Florence winter, he once dissected twenty bodies.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
“You labor in a torture-chamber and dissecting room, I make my observations under the blue sky.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
As she approached the momentous milestone, Saar appeared more interested in creating new art than in dissecting her legacy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
"Art breaks down the borders and boundaries of our imagination; it poses questions, and playing with and dissecting it expands and challenges our present reality," she said.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
But investors were already dissecting the summations of the talks issued by the two countries afterward.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
We ended up sitting together, dissecting our evening with Captain Carroll and the fragile peace that had settled over Haiti.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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.
