Analyzing

How to spell analyzing

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce analyzing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does analyzing mean?

1. verbExamining something in detail by breaking it into its component parts to understand or interpret it.

Analyzing in a sentence

• The accountant spent the morning analyzing last quarter's expenses.

• She enjoys analyzing survey data before writing her report.

Where does analyzing come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek analysis, which literally meant 'a loosening up' or 'a breaking apart', formed from ana- meaning 'throughout' or 'up' and lysis meaning 'a loosening', the same lysis that survives in words like 'paralysis'. The idea was that to understand something you loosen it into its separate parts, and that sense passed through Latin and into French as analyser before reaching English around the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The verb 'analyze' was then formed in English, and the present participle 'analyzing' simply adds the -ing ending. The American and Canadian spelling keeps the z, reflecting the way the word is pronounced, while British writers prefer the s in 'analysing'; that single letter is the whole spelling trap, since the sound gives no clue whether to write s or z.

How the word is built

• ana- (up, throughout)
• -lyz- (from Greek lysis: a loosening or breaking up)
• -ing (present participle suffix)

British and American spelling

Analyzing is the American spelling. British English spells it analysing.