English Reference
Verb

dissect

v.
C1 Advanced US /daɪˈsɛkt/ UK /dˈaɪsɛkt/ dis·sect UK spelling dissected, dissecting, dissects Anatomy Surgery

v.to cut open a body or an object to look at its parts. You usually do this to learn about how something works or to find a problem.

v.to cut open a body or object to examine its internal structure or to analyze a subject in detail. Often used in medical, surgical, or academic contexts.


SIMPLE

The surgeon will dissect the tissue to find the cause of the infection.

CONTEXTUAL

During the biology class, the students had to dissect a frog to understand its internal organs.

COMPLEX

The forensic team carefully dissected the evidence to determine the exact sequence of events that led to the structural failure of the bridge.

Each appearance, commission and production has been dissected: there have been blockbuster hits, much-publicised misses and some brutal reviews along the way.

The Guardian· 22 Aug 2026

The merits or otherwise of these opinions will now be dissected and analysed - and Carrick knows it.

BBC News· 22 Aug 2026

Borrowed from Latin dissectus past participle of dissecare (“to cut asunder, cut up”), from dis- (“asunder”) + secare (“to cut”); see section.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level C1 · Advanced
Frequency Occasional
Updated