Analyse

How to spell analyse

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce analyse

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does analyse mean?

1. verbTo examine something in detail by breaking it into its component parts in order to understand it.

Analyse in a sentence

• The consultant was hired to analyse the company's quarterly spending.

• Researchers analyse the survey results before drawing conclusions.

Where does analyse come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek analysis, meaning 'a loosening' or 'a breaking up', formed from ana, 'up' or 'throughout', and lysis, 'a setting free' or 'dissolving', which itself comes from the verb lyein, 'to loosen'. The original idea was literally to take something apart so that its separate elements could be examined, and that sense of dissolving a whole into its parts survives in the modern meaning. The noun analysis entered English in the late 1500s, largely through scientific and mathematical Latin, and the verb analyse was formed from it soon after. The British and Canadian spelling keeps the French-influenced -yse ending (compare paralyse and catalyse), whereas American English standardised on -yze; this -yse versus -yze split is the whole spelling trap, since the word is identical in every other respect. The same lysis root surfaces in dialysis and electrolysis, both of which describe a breaking down or separating.

How the word is built

• ana- (up, throughout)
• lys (from Greek lysis: a loosening, breaking up)
• -e

British and American spelling

Analyse is the British spelling. American English spells it analyze.