Unravel

How to spell unravel

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unravel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unravel mean?

1. verbTo separate threads that are knitted or woven together, or to come undone in this way.
2. verbTo work out the details of something complicated, or for a plan or situation to collapse.

Unravel in a sentence

• A loose thread can unravel the whole hem of a jumper.

• The detectives worked late to unravel the fraud case.

• She watched the old scarf slowly unravel at the cuff.

• Poor funding caused the entire project to unravel within months.

Where does unravel come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

This word is built from the ordinary reversing prefix un- attached to the older verb 'ravel', and that older verb is the genuinely curious part. 'Ravel' came into English in the late 1500s from the Dutch word 'ravelen', which meant to tangle, to fray, or to come apart thread by thread. Oddly, 'ravel' itself could mean both to entangle and to disentangle, so adding un- simply settled the sense firmly on the side of undoing and separating. From the literal picture of threads pulling loose from a knitted edge, the meaning broadened by the 1600s to cover any complicated thing coming apart or being teased out, such as a plan, a mystery, or an argument. The single letter l is the spelling trap: the base form keeps just one l, even though British writers go on to double it in 'unravelled' and 'unravelling'.

How the word is built

• un- (reversal prefix)
• ravel (to tangle or fray)