unravel

Questions about unravel

What is another word for unravel?

It depends which unravel you mean. In the sense “become or cause to become undone by separating the fibers or threads of”, the synonyms are unknot, unscramble, untangle, unpick. Across all 3 senses there are 7 distinct synonyms, and they are not interchangeable with each other — this page lists them under the sense each one belongs to.

What is the opposite of unravel?

The recorded antonym is ravel. Opposites are sense-specific too: this page shows which meaning each one is the opposite of, because a word rarely has a single opposite that holds for all of its senses.

Why are the synonyms for unravel split into groups?

Because unravel carries 3 recorded senses and each has its own set of substitutes. A single flat list would put words from unrelated meanings side by side with nothing to tell them apart, which is exactly how a writer picks the wrong one. The grouping comes from WordNet's synsets, not from an editorial judgement of ours.

Where do the synonyms for unravel come from?

From Princeton University's WordNet, a lexical database maintained by lexicographers since 1985. A synonym here means a word form that shares a synset with this word — a set of forms interchangeable in one recorded context. Nothing on this page is generated by a language model.

Other views of unravel

• Full entry for unravelAll 3 senses, with examples, usage labels, syllables and pronunciation.
• Rhymes for unravelWords matching from the last stressed vowel onward, grouped by syllable count.
• Thesaurus homeHow WordNet synsets work, and the collections built for synonym work.