analysis

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The separation of an intellectual or material whole into its constituent parts for individual study.
2. n. The study of such constituent parts and their interrelationships in making up a whole.
3. n. A spoken or written presentation of such study: published an analysis of poetic meter.
4. n. Chemistry The separation of a substance into its constituent elements to determine either their nature (qualitative analysis) or their proportions (quantitative analysis).
5. n. Chemistry The stated findings of such a separation or determination.
6. n. Mathematics A branch of mathematics principally involving differential and integral calculus, sequences, and series and concerned with limits and convergence.
7. n. Mathematics The method of proof in which a known truth is sought as a consequence of a series of deductions from that which is the thing to be proved.
8. n. Linguistics The use of function words such as prepositions, pronouns, or auxiliary verbs instead of inflectional endings to express a grammatical relationship; for example, the cover of the dictionary instead of the dictionary's cover.
9. n. Psychoanalysis.
10. n. Systems analysis.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The resolution or separation of anything which is compound, as a conception, a sentence, a material substance, or an event, into its constituent elements or into its causes; decomposition.
2. n. The regressive scientific method of discovery; research into causes; induction.
3. n. In mathematics: Originally, and still frequently, a regressive method, said to have been invented by Plato, which first assumes the conclusion and gradually leads back to the premises. The thirteenth book of Euclid's Elements has the following definition, which is not supposed to be by Euclid, but which is ancient, and perhaps by Eudoxus: Analysis is the proceeding from the thing sought, as conceded, by consequences to some conceded truth; synthesis is the proceeding from the conceded by consequences to the truth sought. According to Pappus, analysis is of two kinds: theoretical, so called because used in research into truth, and problematic, so called because used in the solution of problems. In the former, the proposition to be proved is assumed as true, and consequences are drawn from it until something conceded is reached, which if it is true involves the truth of the thing sought, the demonstration corresponding to the analysis; in the latter, the construction sought is assumed as already known, and consequences are deduced from it until something given is reached.
4. n. Algebraical reasoning, in which unknown quantities are operated upon in order to find their values.
5. n. The treatment of problems by a consideration of infinitesimals, or something equivalent, especially by the differential calculus (including the integral calculus, the calculus of variations, etc.): often called infinitesimal analysis. This is the common meaning of the word in modern times.
6. n. Hence — The discussion of a problem by means of algebra (in the sense of a system of symbols with rules of transformation), in opposition to a geometrical discussion of it, that is, a discussion resting directly upon the imagination of space: thus, analytical geometry is the treatment of geometrical problems by analysis.
7. n. A syllabus or synopsis of the contents of a book or discourse, or of the principles of a science.
8. n. In cricket, an itemized record of the play of the bowler, intended to show particularly the number of runs scored by him and the number of wickets obtained.
9. n. In chem., intentionally produced decomposition: often applied to the ascertainment of the composition of a substance, whether the constituents are actually obtained in separate form or not.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable, of a thing, theory A process of dismantling or separating into constituent elements in order to study the nature, function, or meaning.
2. n. countable The result of such a process.
3. n. uncountable, mathematics The mathematical study of functions, sequences, series, limits, derivatives and integrals.
4. n. countable, logic Proof by deduction from known truths.
5. n. countable, chemistry The process of breaking down a substance into its constituent parts, or the result of this process.
6. n. countable, psychology Psychoanalysis.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A resolution of anything, whether an object of the senses or of the intellect, into its constituent or original elements; an examination of the component parts of a subject, each separately, as the words which compose a sentence, the tones of a tune, or the simple propositions which enter into an argument. It is opposed to synthesis.
2. n. (Chem.) The separation of a compound substance, by chemical processes, into its constituents, with a view to ascertain either (a) what elements it contains, or (b) how much of each element is present. The former is called qualitative, and the latter quantitative analysis.
3. n. (Logic) The tracing of things to their source, and the resolving of knowledge into its original principles.
4. n. (Math.) The resolving of problems by reducing the conditions that are in them to equations.
5. n. A syllabus, or table of the principal heads of a discourse, disposed in their natural order.
6. n. A brief, methodical illustration of the principles of a science. In this sense it is nearly synonymous with synopsis.
7. n. (Nat. Hist.) The process of ascertaining the name of a species, or its place in a system of classification, by means of an analytical table or key.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an investigation of the component parts of a whole and their relations in making up the whole
2. n. a form of literary criticism in which the structure of a piece of writing is analyzed
3. n. the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., `the father of the bride' instead of `the bride's father'
4. n. a set of techniques for exploring underlying motives and a method of treating various mental disorders; based on the theories of Sigmund Freud
5. n. a branch of mathematics involving calculus and the theory of limits; sequences and series and integration and differentiation
6. n. the abstract separation of a whole into its constituent parts in order to study the parts and their relations