Dissect

Quick meaning: Dissect is a verb meaning (literal, transitive) To study an animal's anatomy by cutting it apart; to perform a necropsy or an autopsy.

Meaning

(literal, transitive) To study an animal's anatomy by cutting it apart; to perform a necropsy or an autopsy.

More Meanings

1. (literal, transitive) To study a plant's or other organism's anatomy similarly.
2. (figurative, transitive) To analyze an idea in detail by delineating between its parts.
3. (literal, transitive, anatomy, surgery) To separate muscles, organs, etc. without cutting into them or disrupting their architecture.
4. (literal, transitive, pathology) Of an infection or foreign material, following the fascia separating muscles or other organs.
5. (figurative, transitive, derogatory) To decontextualize an idea, especially through overanalysis by delineating between its parts too strongly based on style, usually involving pedantry, at the expense of substance.

Example Sentences

Now dissect the triceps away from its attachment on the humerus.

She was the first person in her class to properly dissect the sheep heart.

Academics tend to take Indigenous oral histories out of their contexts and dissect them according to Western disciplinary objectives and foci (see figure 1).

By focusing excessively on dissecting the text into 'forms' and exploring their supposed evolution, form criticism overlooks the larger literary and historical context within which these forms exist.

Word Forms

• dissects
• dissecting
• dissected

Synonyms for dissect

Depending on context, synonyms include contextomize, analyze, analyse, break down.

Antonyms for dissect

Common opposites include synthesize, synthesise.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include break down, analyze, analyse, anatomise, subdissect, redissect.

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