Analysis

How to spell analysis

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce analysis

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does analysis mean?

1. nounA detailed examination of something by breaking it into its component parts to understand it.

Analysis in a sentence

• The financial analysis revealed where the company was losing money.

• Her analysis of the survey data took several weeks to complete.

Where does analysis come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek analusis, meaning 'a loosening' or 'a dissolving into parts'. It was built from ana, meaning 'up' or 'throughout', and luein, the verb 'to loosen, untie or set free', so the literal sense was the breaking of a whole down into its components. The term passed into Latin as analysis and reached English in the late 1500s, at first in mathematical and logical contexts before spreading to chemistry, medicine and everyday reasoning. The same luein root that means 'to loosen' also survives in 'paralysis', a loosening beside, and in the suffix '-lysis' used across the sciences. The spelling trap lives in that Greek 'y' in the middle and the unstressed second 'a', both of which sound nothing like they look.

How the word is built

• ana- (up, throughout)
• lysis (a loosening or breaking apart)
• -is (noun)