name
Meaning 1
A male given name.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
ravel
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ɹəˈvɛl/
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rhymes with -ɛl
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General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɹævəl/
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General-American, Received-Pronunciation: [ˈɹævl̩]
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ævəl
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CMU ARPABET: R AE1 V AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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CMU ARPABET 2: R AH0 V EH1 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
name
Meaning 2
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland, literary
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: ravelment
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland, figuratively, literary
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A thread which has unravelled from fabric, etc.; also, a situation of fabric, etc., coming apart; an unravelling.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: also, figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To entwine or tangle (something) confusedly; to entangle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: mat, snarl, enmesh, ensnare, ensnarl, entangle, foul, implicate, imply, involve, ravel, tangle
Antonyms: disentangle, unravel, untangle, feeze, tease out, unsnarl
verb
Meaning 7
Often followed by up: to form (something) out of discrete elements, like weaving fabric from threads; to knit.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: also, figuratively, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: knit, weave
Antonyms: unravel, unweave
verb
Meaning 8
To unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.); to pull apart (cloth, a seam, etc.); to fray, to unpick, to unravel; also, to pull out (a string of yarn, a thread, etc.) from a piece of fabric, or a skein or reel.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To confuse or perplex (someone or something).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: confound, involve, puzzle, addle, baffle, vex, lose, embroil, stick, stump, baffound, bamboozle, bedevil, befuddle, throw, bemud, bemuse, bewilder, bumfuzzle, complicate, confuddle, confuse, confuzzle, dazzle, discombobulate, disconcert, blind, dumbfound, entangle, ferhoodle, flabagast, flabbergast, flabbergaster, flurry, fluster, flummox, fuddle, jumble, knot, mix up, muddle, muddy, ravel, perplex
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 10
Often followed by out: to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.); to clarify, to disentangle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, figuratively, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: iron out, unravel, untangle, absolve, decipher, get to the bottom of, meliorate, puzzle out, ravel, reason out, resolve, riddle, sleuth, solve, tease out, think out, unpuzzle, unriddle, unsolve, upsolve, work out, Any from Thesaurus:untangle
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 11
To destroy or ruin (something), like unravelling fabric.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, obsolete, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: disintegrate, race, unmake, destroy, annihilate, aerosolize, atomize, benothing, bewreck, blot out, blotto, dash, decompose, demolish, desolate, devastate, diffuse, disperse, dissolve, eliminate, eradicate, erase, exterminate, extinguish, extirpate, fordo, fuck, harry, jazz, lay waste, level, liquidate, nuke, obliterate, overthrow, overturn, pull down, pulverize, raze, ravage, ravel, remove, ruin, ruinate, stamp out, total, subvert, unbreed, unexist, uproot, waste, wipe out, wipe off, wreck
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 12
In the APL programming language: to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, programming, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 13
Often followed by out: of a reel of thread or skein of yarn; or a thread on a reel or a string of yarn in a skein, etc.: to become untwisted or unwound.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 14
Often followed by out: of clothing, fabric, etc.: to become unwoven; to fray, to unravel.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: also, figuratively, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 15
To become entangled or snarled.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, intransitive, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 16
a row of unravelled stitches
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- she got a run in her stocking
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: run, ladder
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: damage, harm, impairment
noun
Meaning 17
French composer and exponent of Impressionism (1875-1937)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Maurice Ravel
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: composer
verb
Meaning 18
tangle or complicate
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- a ravelled story
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: tangle, knot
Antonyms: unravel
Broader terms: intertwine, twine, entwine, enlace, interlace, lace
verb
Meaning 19
disentangle
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- can you unravel the mystery?
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: unravel, ravel out
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: disentangle, unsnarl, straighten out
History
Etymology
* As a French surname, from Ravel. * As an English surname, variant of Raffel. * As a German surname, Americanized from Raffel. * As an Indian surname, variant of Raval.
The verb is borrowed from Dutch ravelen, rafelen (“to tangle, become entangled; to fray; to unweave”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain. It has been suggested that the verb is originally derived from the noun, but the Oxford English Dictionary regards this as “very uncertain”, and instead regards the noun as having derived from the verb (compare Dutch rafel, raffel (“frayed thread”)). Ravel is a contranym having both the senses of tangling (verb senses 1.1, 1.2, 1.4.1, and 2.3; noun sense 1) and untangling (verb senses 1.3, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 2.1, and 2.2; noun sense 2). It would appear that the tangling senses predate the untangling ones (as in Dutch), but this is uncertain because the first published uses of both senses of the words occur around the same time.
Across languages
Translations
7 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: разпарям (razparjam) — to unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.); to pull apart (cloth, a seam, etc.); to pull out (a string of yard, a thread, etc.) from a piece of fabric, or a skein or reel — see also fray, unpick, unravel
- Greek: εκτυλίσσω (ektylísso) — to unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.); to pull apart (cloth, a seam, etc.); to pull out (a string of yard, a thread, etc.) from a piece of fabric, or a skein or reel — see also fray, unpick, unravel
- Irish: rois — to unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.); to pull apart (cloth, a seam, etc.); to pull out (a string of yard, a thread, etc.) from a piece of fabric, or a skein or reel — see also fray, unpick, unravel
- Russian: распуска́ть (raspuskátʹ) — to unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.); to pull apart (cloth, a seam, etc.); to pull out (a string of yard, a thread, etc.) from a piece of fabric, or a skein or reel — see also fray, unpick, unravel
- Russian: распу́тывать (raspútyvatʹ) — to unwind (a reel of thread, a skein of yarn, etc.); to pull apart (cloth, a seam, etc.); to pull out (a string of yard, a thread, etc.) from a piece of fabric, or a skein or reel — see also fray, unpick, unravel
- Bulgarian: разлагам (razlagam) — to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.) — see also clarify, disentangle
- Greek: ξεμπερδεύω (xemperdévo) — to undo the intricacies of (a problem, etc.) — see also clarify, disentangle