analyze Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb consider in detail and subject to an analysis in order to discover essential features or meaning
    canvas; study; analyse; examine; canvass.
    • analyze a sonnet by Shakespeare
    • analyze the evidence in a criminal trial
    • analyze your real motives
  2. verb make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
    take apart; dissect; analyse; break down.
    • analyze a specimen
    • analyze a sentence
    • analyze a chemical compound
  3. verb break down into components or essential features
    analyse.
    • analyze today's financial market
  4. verb subject to psychoanalytic treatment
    psychoanalyse; analyse; psychoanalyze.
    • I was analyzed in Vienna by a famous psychiatrist

WordNet

An"a*lyze transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. F. analyser. See Analysis.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Analyzed present participle & verbal noun Analyzing
Definitions
  1. To subject to analysis; to resolve (anything complex) into its elements; to separate into the constituent parts, for the purpose of an examination of each separately; to examine in such a manner as to ascertain the elements or nature of the thing examined; as, to analyze a fossil substance; to analyze a sentence or a word; to analyze an action to ascertain its morality.
    No one, I presume, can analyze the sensations of pleasure or pain. Darwin.

Webster 1913