analyse
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to examine in detail in order to discover meaning, essential features, etc
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to break down into components or essential features
to analyse a financial structure
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to make a mathematical, chemical, grammatical, etc, analysis of
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another word for psychoanalyse
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of analyse
C17: back formation from analysis
Explanation
To analyse (analyze is U.S. English) something is to consider it in detail so you can figure out its workings or meaning. Analyse comes from Greek roots meaning "loosen." If you analyse something, it's as if you're untying it and letting the different parts separate so that you can study them. If you've got some mystery substance, you can analyse it by performing chemical reactions to break it into its parts. If you analyse a poem, you look at it word-by-word and even sound-by-sound. But remember that analyse is a British spelling, with analyze as the American version.
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:
AI usage is measured in "tokens", which are small chunks of text that AI systems use to understand, analyse and generate language.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
"The DA will use the win as part of their campaign but if you analyse it, they won with eight votes. It was a very tight contest," he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
Referring to various unnamed devices that analyse sweat, which he has evaluated in the lab, he says, "Most of these products that we've tested do not show the level of accuracy that you would expect."
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
The European Commission said the company had "failed to diligently identify, analyse and assess the systemic risks" of the products and the harm they could cause to consumers.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
But it was interesting, once I started to analyse and sort the examples, to discover that the greengrocer’s apostrophe formed just one depressing category of the overall, total, mind-bogglingly depressing misuse of the apostrophe.
From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Author
Wang and Zahl analysed the problem on the assumption that the pencil was floating in a three-dimensional space, rather than on a flat surface.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
A team analysed the songs of more than 100,000 songbirds and revealed that the world's birdsongs are composed of eight fundamental types of sound that the researchers call "motifs".
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Even so, the impact of high temperatures on solar energy in Great Britain is visible in data he and his colleagues have analysed and shared with the BBC.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
Since 2020, South Korea has led growth in real average wealth per adult across the 56 analysed markets, with gains above 50 percent.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Borelli treated the body as a system of levers acted on by the forces exerted by the muscles, and analysed geometrically how muscles in the human body acted in walking and running.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
We estimated this by analysing whole-genome DNA to reconstruct when populations split and how much they exchanged genes in the past.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026
Investigators "seized electronic data from the commission's servers and is now analysing the material obtained", he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
A software company has been awarded a contract to develop and test the technology, which will estimate a person's age by analysing photographs of them taken at the border.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
"I looked at all the teams that play the World Cup for the least-known player and, after analysing one by one, I found it," Scarsini said on Wednesday.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
It is therefore necessary, in analysing a belief, to look for some other logical form than a two-term relation.
From Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy by Russell, Bertrand
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.
