Analyzer

How to spell analyzer

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce analyzer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does analyzer mean?

1. nounA device, program, or person that examines something by breaking it into its parts to determine its makeup or behaviour.

Analyzer in a sentence

• The gas analyzer flagged a dangerous leak in the basement.

• The hospital lab installed a new blood analyzer this morning.

Where does analyzer come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word is built on the verb 'analyze', which traces back through Latin to the Greek 'analusis', meaning 'a loosening up' or 'a dissolving into parts'. That noun came from the verb 'analuein', formed from 'ana', meaning 'up' or 'throughout', and 'luein', meaning 'to loosen' or 'untie'; the literal image was of untying a knot to see how it was made. The sense passed into scientific and logical English in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to mean breaking a whole down into its components for study. Adding the agent suffix '-er' produced 'analyzer', a name for any device, program, or person that performs that breaking down. The 'z' spelling reflects the American and Canadian preference for '-yze', whereas British writers keep the older '-yse' form 'analyser'. The same 'luein' root for loosening also survives in 'paralysis', literally a loosening at the side of the body.

How the word is built

• ana- (Greek: up, throughout)
• lys (loosen, from Greek lysis)
• -yze (verb-forming, to break down)
• -er (agent: thing or person that does)