ˈan ə lˌīz verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Usage: see -ize
Etymology: probably irregular from analysis + -ize
transitive verb
1.
a. : to ascertain the components of or separate into component parts : determine carefully the fundamental elements of (as by separation or isolation) for close scrutiny and examination of constituents or for accurate resolution of an overall structure or nature
in the laboratory … we were required to analyze specimens — V.G.Heiser
: subject to analysis
b. : to determine by mental discernment the nature, significance, and relationship of the various parts, elements, aspects, or qualities of (whatever is under consideration)
Balzac … analyzed a society in which human existence was no longer possible — P.F.Drucker
2. : to weigh or study (various aspects, factors, or elements) in order to arrive at an answer, result, or solution
constantly tries to analyze the motives for his own behavior — Midwest Journal
3.
a. : to determine one or more chemical ingredients of : examine by chemical analysis
analyze cast iron for phosphorus
b. : to show or yield on chemical analysis
a slag that analyzes 25 percent silica
4. : to divide (as a sentence) into parts and indicate the relation of each part to the other parts or to the whole
5. : to make an analytical entry for
6. : psychoanalyze
intransitive verb
: to engage in analysis
Synonyms:
resolve , break ( down ), dissect , anatomize : analyze is likely to suggest ascertainment of components, sometimes by physical separation of those components, in the interests of determining a thing's nature or structure or the relationship of its parts
he would make a plate or a fork or a bell, set it to ringing by a blow, and analyze the combination of musical notes which it emitted — K.K.Darrow
It may suggest a scientific or objective attitude
a cultured person, therefore, regards Nature with what might be called a Goethean, rather than a Newtonian, eye. He trains himself to see and to feel, rather than to analyze or to explain — J.C.Powys
In more complex matters it involves ascertainment and individual scrutiny of aspects, traits, characteristics, qualities
Gard was much struck. It never occurred to him to analyze the people that he loved — Mary Austin
resolve is likely to stress the fact of change of form, of metamorphosis, rather than necessarily indicating division into components, through some process or chain of effects
one inseparable drop, crystallized beyond change …, nor resolved by any alchemy — W.H.Hudson
labor measures the value not only of that part of price which resolves itself into labor, but of that which resolves itself into rent, and of that which resolves itself into profit — Adam Smith
nothing but death was strong enough to shatter that inherited restraint and resolve it into tenderness — Ellen Glasgow
break ( down ) suggests classifying, itemizing, subgrouping, or other treatment of specific, individual component items for clarity or convenience
an overall figure of 1,623,404. There was no attempt to break this down into dead, wounded, and missing — N. Y.Times
dissect suggests laying bare parts, pieces, or relationships under consideration or actually severing them for individual scrutiny, as with a scalpel
when I speak of dissecting atoms or dissecting matter, I refer to the fact that we can draw negative electricity out of every substance which there is — K.K.Darrow
to understand Elizabethan drama it is necessary to study a dozen playwrights at once, to dissect with all care the complex growth — T.S.Eliot
a complicated record must be dissected, the narratives of witnesses, more or less incoherent and unintelligible, must be analyzed — B.N.Cardozo
anatomize differs from dissect chiefly in suggesting even more meticulous innate scrutiny, often of character traits
his colleagues also are vividly described and anatomized — with a few brush strokes to show us their outsides, and a few scalpel thrusts to expose their insides — Robert Halsband
Thoreau could anatomize the professional reformer as amusingly as Dickens — Laurence Stapleton