as in analyzing
to identify and examine the basic elements or parts of (something) especially for discovering interrelationships
let's dissect the plot of this thriller to see what makes it thrilling
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Recent Examples of dissecting
While some installments tackled the basics like cooking supplies, automobiles, and food, others threw curveballs such as dissecting the inner workings of 3-D commercial signs, false teeth, cuckoo clocks, and more.
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Ilana Gordon, Entertainment Weekly, 30 Dec. 2025
One employee mentioned she had been heavily invested in the drama, dissecting the turn of events with everyone from her friends to her uncle.
—Harmeet Kaur, CNN Money, 3 Dec. 2025
The footage, shot by a personal videographer in 2024 while Combs was under federal investigation, captures the former Bad Boy Records founder pacing, frustrated, and dissecting the public perception of his case in real time.
—Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Dec. 2025
Avani Karthik 60 Minutes This is light years beyond my biology class, where the high point was dissecting frogs.
—Henry Schuster, CBS News, 1 Dec. 2025
Almost a year after his arrest, there continues to be a robust ecosystem of supporters dissecting the crime and each shred of communication from Mangione.
—Lorena O'Neil, Rolling Stone, 24 Nov. 2025
His parents encouraged him to study pharmacology, but his resistance to dissecting a frog in one of his science classes, combined with undiagnosed dyslexia, led him to drop out.
—Hilton Als, New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2025
The technique starts with a minuscule sample of tissue; for example, in the makeshift lab at the hotel in Malles Venosta, researchers dissecting moths for sequencing also removed, for DNA barcoding, a leg of each moth whose species was not conclusively known.
—Glenn Zorpette, IEEE Spectrum, 4 Nov. 2025
The Miami Herald spent more than two years dissecting the 2022 boat crash that killed 17-year-old Luciana ‘Lucy’ Fernandez and critically injured Katerina ‘Katy’ Puig.
—David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 19 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissecting
Verb
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Cause of avalanche not immediately known Representatives from the Northwest Avalanche Center also responded to the scene to assist in analyzing the incident, according to the sheriff's office.—
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Kirk Herbstreit has spent the last three decades analyzing college football teams and games.—
Verb
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Whether revisiting legendary careers or examining the fleeting intensity of modern pop, these films offer music lovers a chance to experience the stories behind the sound.—
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This past summer, Brossoit and doctors, after examining his right hip, found the root cause of the knee pain — a cam lesion on the head of his femur that was causing issues with cartilage inside the joint.—
Cite this Entry
“Dissecting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissecting. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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