Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Language: Latin
Origin: dissectus, from secare 'to cut'

dissect

 verb
     
Related topics: Medicine, Education
dis‧sect [transitive]
1MSE to cut up the body of a dead animal or person in order to study it
2 to examine something carefully in order to understand it:
books in which the lives of famous people are dissected
3 to divide an area of land into several smaller pieces:
fields dissected by small streams
—dissection noun [uncountable and countable]
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary