different between analyze vs overanalyze

English

Alternative forms

• analyse (Commonwealth including sometimes Canada)

Etymology

Back-formation from analysis, from French analyser, from analyse, from Medieval Latin analysis, from Ancient Greek ???????? (análusis, “a breaking up, a loosening, releasing”), from ?????? (analú?, “to unloose, release, set free”), from ??? (aná, “on, up, above, throughout”) + ????? (lúsis, “a loosening”), from ??? (lú?, “to unfasten”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æn.?.la?z/
• Hyphenation: an?a?lyze

Verb

analyze (third-person singular simple present analyzes, present participle analyzing, simple past and past participle analyzed) (American spelling)

1. (transitive) To subject to analysis.
2. (transitive) To resolve (anything complex) into its elements.
3. (transitive) To separate into the constituent parts, for the purpose of an examination of each separately.
4. (transitive) 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, or to analyze an action to ascertain its morality.

Usage notes

• According to the third edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, both analyze and the British spelling analyse are equally indefensible from an etymological perspective. The correct but now impossible form should have been *analysize.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

• analysis
• analyst
• analytic / analytical

Translations

English

Etymology

over- +? analyze

Verb

overanalyze (third-person singular simple present overanalyzes, present participle overanalyzing, simple past and past participle overanalyzed)

1. To analyze too much or in too much detail.

Translations