Other forms: analyses
An analysis is a careful examination that takes something apart in order to understand it. A detailed analysis, statistical analysis, on closer analysis.
The plural is analyses, said an-AL-uh-seez, and the two spellings differ by a single letter — analysis with an i is one, analyses with an e is more than one. That is the commonest mistake with the word. The verb is analyse in British English and analyze in American. In psychology, analysis without a qualifier means psychoanalysis. And in the final analysis is a fixed phrase meaning when everything has been considered.
1nounanalysisA careful examination of something in its parts.
“The analysis took three months and filled two volumes.”
2nounsubstanceThe examination of a substance to find what it contains.
“The sample was sent for analysis.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
analysis is a careful examination.
Greek analysis meant a loosening up — ana-, throughout, plus lyein, to loosen, the same verb behind paralysis. Analysing is untying something to see how it was tied, which is a precise account of what the word asks for.
Medieval Latin
analysis
English, today
analysis
Built from
Borrowed from Medieval Latin analysis. From Medieval Latin analysis, from Ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις, from ἀναλύω (“to unravel, investigate”), from ἀνα- (“thoroughly”) + λύω (“to loosen”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA