unravel
Americanverb (used with object)
-
unravels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
unraveled,
past participle, past
-
unravelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
unraveling,
present participle
-
unravelling
present participle (especially British)
-
to separate or disentangle the threads of (a woven or knitted fabric, a rope, etc.).
-
to free from complication or difficulty; make plain or clear; solve.
to unravel a situation; to unravel a mystery.
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Informal. to take apart; undo; destroy (a plan, agreement, or arrangement).
verb (used without object)
-
unravels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
unraveled,
past participle, past
-
unravelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
unraveling,
present participle
-
unravelling
present participle (especially British)
verb
-
(tr) to reduce (something knitted or woven) to separate strands
-
(tr) to undo or untangle (something tangled or knotted)
-
(tr) to explain or solve
the mystery was unravelled
-
(intr) to become unravelled
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
unravelsimple
-
unravelssimple
-
have unraveledperfect
-
have unravelledperfect
-
has unraveledperfect
-
has unravelledperfect
-
am unravelingprogressive
-
am unravellingprogressive
-
are unravelingprogressive
-
are unravellingprogressive
-
is unravelingprogressive
-
is unravellingprogressive
-
have been unravelingperfect progressive
-
have been unravellingperfect progressive
-
has been unravelingperfect progressive
-
has been unravellingperfect progressive
Past
-
unraveledsimple
-
unravelledsimple
-
had unraveledperfect
-
had unravelledperfect
-
was unravelingprogressive
-
was unravellingprogressive
-
were unravelingprogressive
-
were unravellingprogressive
-
had been unravelingperfect progressive
-
had been unravellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of unravel
Explanation
However tempting, don't pull that straggly thread hanging from your sleeve. You'll just unravel, or totally undo, your hand-knitted sweater. Something that's unraveled has been completely undone, whether it's a spool of thread, some knotty shoelaces, or your mental state after a long and frustrating day. You can also unravel a mystery by picking it apart, untangling the details or just following the trail of clues like a line of string.
Vocabulary lists containing unravel
Power Prefix: un-
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List 11
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Where the Red Fern Grows
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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:
Anduril hasn’t signed a lease, and the people cautioned that deal talks could still unravel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Many say the idyll began to unravel when New Delhi appointed civil servant Jayanti Ravi to head Auroville in 2021.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
Walsh tried to unravel his defence, at one stage focusing heavily on the meeting with Complainant B in the late 1990s.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
The risk is in how quickly it could unravel.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 2026
I wanted to pull the thread, unravel the scarf of my silence and start again from the beginning, but instead I said, “I.”
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
The pressure is truly on with five games remaining as the campaign unravels at a crucial juncture.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026
A failed breakout of that nature, especially one that unravels quickly, would be a meaningful bearish signal.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
There is no chorus in Icke’s version, but the sentiment holds, as Oedipus unravels the puzzle of his identity with the same relentlessness that has brought him to the brink of electoral triumph.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025
The agreement also unravels a direct-to-device satellite constellation that EchoStar said in August it would develop.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2025
After that, what little sense of order there was unravels.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
A brief Treasury market rally that followed Warsh’s first press conference at the Fed’s helm in June also unraveled.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 26, 2026
The attack quickly unraveled when Mangubat revealed she was engaged and actively planning her wedding.
From Salon ● May 30, 2026
Female wasps began aggressively competing for dominance, and the colony's normal social structure quickly unraveled.
From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026
It began as gossip, and long-lens photographs of unknown provenance, and it has since unraveled into another textbook case of bungled crisis management.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Jam knew that her mother would want answers, explanations, things unraveled into a pattern that she could accept as rational.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
On it, smart cameras installed around his home relayed images of his house, now under clear blue skies, with the hosepipe in the yard unravelled where he left it.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
His comments come as a preliminary deal made in mid-June to stop fighting has unravelled, with negotiations for a permanent peace making little progress after Trump declared the agreement was "over" on 8 July.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Since then, however, the gains have largely unravelled.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
It was an interesting choice to describe a player who’d unravelled a few nights before, but it felt like the correct read.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Even so, I kept worrying that one of the strings would come unravelled and a single balloon would sail off up into that cloudy sky.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
The unraveling of the Situational Awareness hedge fund has inspired comparisons with Long-Term Capital Management, a legendary hedge fund that failed in spectacular fashion in 1998.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
On the ChatGPT timeline, nearly the same point coincides with Situational Awareness’s unraveling.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
The latest strikes, the second round in just 24 hours, were the starkest sign yet that efforts to clinch a permanent peace agreement are unraveling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
In Bunnie’s 2026 memoir, “Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic,” she wrote about Jelly Roll’s 10-month affair in 2018 and her subsequent emotional unraveling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
I couldn’t help thinking how sickened Howie would have been if he’d seen the pathetic unraveling of the family he’d worked so hard for.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
Brendon McCullum has been sacked as Test coach in another staggering twist in the unravelling of the England team.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
She says she felt like everything was "unravelling" when she hit crisis point.
From BBC ● May 27, 2026
"No adversary should mistake our current restraint with a lack of resolve," General Dan Caine told reporters, amid fears the current US-Iranian ceasefire is unravelling.
From Barron's ● May 5, 2026
"Our home honestly felt like it was unravelling," he says.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
The tragedy of the war, on so many levels, and the apparent unravelling of the certainties of the previous century, elicited an unprecedented collective response from British composers.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
