Resolve

How to spell resolve

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce resolve

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does resolve mean?

1. verbTo decide firmly on a course of action, or to settle and clear up a problem or dispute.
2. nounFirm determination to do something.

Resolve in a sentence

• verb

  The committee met to resolve the dispute over parking spaces.

• noun

  His resolve to finish the marathon never wavered, even in the rain.

• verb

  She made a quiet decision to resolve the matter before the deadline.

• noun

  The long delay tested her resolve but did not break it.

Where does resolve come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin resolvere, which literally meant 'to untie' or 'to loosen again', built from the prefix re-, used here as an intensifier, and solvere, meaning 'to loosen, release or dissolve'. In Latin the sense ran from physically unbinding something to mentally breaking a problem down into its parts, and that same solvere root sits inside 'solve', 'dissolve' and 'solvent'. English took the word in during the late 1300s, at first in the sense of melting or dissolving a substance, and it gradually shifted toward the mental act of clearing up confusion, settling a question, and forming a firm decision. By the 1500s it had also become a noun meaning fixed determination, the steadiness of a mind that has been made up. The spelling keeps the single -s- and the silent-feeling -lve ending of solve, which is the part writers most often second-guess.

How the word is built

• re- (again, intensive)
• solve (from Latin solvere: to loosen, release, dissolve)