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PlainSpell

dissect

/dɪˈsɛkt/verb

dissect is spelled D-I-S-S-E-C-T. The wrong spelling people search most is disect: about 460 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Dissect is a verb meaning “To study an animal's anatomy by cutting it apart; to perform a necropsy or an autopsy”.

How many letters and syllables are in dissect?

Letters7: D-I-S-S-E-C-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 32,798th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, disect, about 460 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell dissect?

Dissect is spelled D-I-S-S-E-C-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for dissect in either form.

dissectthe right spelling980 searches a month
disecta missing s460 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is dissect?

Dissect appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dissect?

  • UK /dɪˈsɛkt/
  • UK /daɪˈsɛkt/
  • US /dɪˈsɛkt/

Dissect has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dissect.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with dissect?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dissect from its last stressed vowel (/ɛkt/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of dissect

  • dissects present, singular, he/she/it
  • dissecting participle, present
  • dissected participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dissect mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To study an animal's anatomy by cutting it apart; to perform a necropsy or an autopsy.

  2. 2

    To study a plant's or other organism's anatomy similarly.

  3. 3

    To analyze an idea in detail by delineating between its parts.

  4. 4

    derogatoryTo decontextualize an idea, especially through overanalysis by delineating between its parts too strongly based on style, usually involving pedantry, at the expense of substance.

  5. 5

    To separate muscles, organs, etc. without cutting into them or disrupting their architecture.

    Now dissect the triceps away from its attachment on the humerus.

  6. 6

    Of an infection or foreign material, following the fascia separating muscles or other organs.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dissect in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdisséquer (1. to study a dead animal's anatomy by cutting…)
Germansezieren (1. to study a dead animal's anatomy by cutting…), zerlegen, analysieren (3. to analyze an idea in detail by separating…)
Portuguesedissecar (1. to study a dead animal's anatomy by cutting…)
Spanishdisecar, diseccionar (1. to study a dead animal's anatomy by cutting…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dissect come from?

Borrowed from Latin dissectus past participle of dissecare (“to cut asunder, cut up”), from dis- (“asunder”) + secare (“to cut”); see section.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dissect