unravel

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ævəl

Verb

unravel (third-person singular simple present unravels, present participle unraveling or unravelling, simple past and past participle unraveled or unravelled)

1. to separate the threads (of)

   Stop playing with the seam of the table cloth! You will unravel it.

   Mother couldn't unravel the ball of wool anymore after the cat had played with it.

2. (intransitive) to become undone

Usage notes

unraveling and unraveled are primarily US while unravelling and unravelled are primarily UK.

Synonyms

• unriddle
• solve
• unsnarl
• disentangle

Translations

to separate the threads (of)

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 繹 (cmn), 绎 (cmn) (yì), 解開 (cmn), 解开 (cmn) (jiěkāi)

• Czech: párat (cs)
• Dutch: ontrafelen (nl), ontwarren (nl)
• Finnish: purkaa (transitive), purkautua (intransitive)
• French: dénouer (fr), démêler (fr), résoudre (fr)
• German: entwirren (de), auftrennen (de)

• Hungarian: kibogoz (hu), szálakra bont (hu)
• Japanese: 解く (ja) (とく, toku), 解く (ja) (ほどく, hodoku), ほぐす (ja) (hogusu)
• Norwegian: rakne (no)
• Portuguese: desemaranhar
• Romanian: deșira (ro)
• Russian: распутывать (ru) (raspútyvatʹ) impf., распутать (ru) (raspútatʹ) pf.
• Spanish: desenmarañar (es), desenredar (es), deshilar (es)

Anagrams

• venular