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PlainSpell

dissolve

dis·solve/dɪˈzɑlv/verb, noun

dissolve is spelled D-I-S-S-O-L-V-E, 2 syllables: dis·solve. The wrong spelling people search most is disolve: about 180 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Dissolve is a verb meaning “To terminate a union of multiple members actively, as by disbanding”.

How many letters and syllables are in dissolve?

Letters8: D-I-S-S-O-L-V-E
Syllables2: dis·solve
In writing3.1 times per million words; the 15,146th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, disolve, about 180 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 dissolve?

Dissolve is spelled D-I-S-S-O-L-V-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for dissolve in either form.

dissolvethe right spelling1,130 searches a month
disolvea missing s180 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 dissolve?

Dissolve appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th 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 dissolve?

  • UK /dɪˈzɒlv/
  • US /dɪˈzɑlv/
  • US /dɪˈzɔlv/

Dissolve has 2 syllables, split dis·solve in writing.

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

What rhymes with dissolve?

6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as dissolve from its last stressed vowel (/ɑlv/):

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 dissolve

  • dissolves present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • dissolving participle, present
  • dissolved participle, past

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

What does dissolve mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To terminate a union of multiple members actively, as by disbanding.

    The ruling party or coalition sometimes dissolves parliament early when the polls are favorable, hoping to reconvene with a larger majority.

  2. 2

    To destroy, make disappear.

  3. 3

    To liquify, melt into a fluid.

  4. 4

    To be melted, changed into a fluid.

  5. 5

    To disintegrate chemically into a solution by immersion into a liquid or other material.

  6. 6

    To be disintegrated by such immersion.

  7. 7

    To disperse, drive apart a group of persons.

  8. 8

    To break the continuity of; to disconnect; to loosen; to undo; to separate.

noun

  1. 1

    a form of film punctuation in which there is a gradual transition from one scene to the next

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

Dissolve in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdissoudre (transitive: to terminate a union of multiple…), se dissoudre (intransitive: to be disintegrated into a…)
Germanauflösen (transitive: to terminate a union of multiple…), sich auflösen (intransitive: to be disintegrated into a…)
Portuguesedissolver (transitive: to terminate a union of multiple…), dissolver-se, diluir-se (transitive: to disintegrate into a solution by…)
Spanishdisolver (transitive: to terminate a union of multiple…), desleír (transitive: to disintegrate into a solution by…), disolvencia (film punctuation)

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 dissolve come from?

Recorded since c. 1374 (displacing Old English toliesan) as Middle English dissolven, from Latin dissolvere (“to loosen up, break apart”) but with the sense from Anglo-Norman dissoldre (variant of Old French dissoudre), itself from dis- (“apart”) + solvere (“to loose, loosen”). By surface analysis, dis- + solve.

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

What to look up after dissolve