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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dissolve.

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

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/dɪˈzɒlv/Received-Pronunciation/dɪˈzɑlv/General-American/dɪˈzɔlv/General-American
  1. To terminate a union of multiple members actively, as by disbanding.

    transitive
    The ruling party or coalition sometimes dissolves parliament early when the polls are favorable, hoping to reconvene with a larger majority.
  2. To destroy, make disappear.

    transitive
  3. To liquify, melt into a fluid.

    transitive
  4. To be melted, changed into a fluid.

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

    physical · transitive
  6. To be disintegrated by such immersion.

    intransitive · physical
  7. To disperse, drive apart a group of persons.

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

    transitive
  9. To annul; to rescind; to discharge or release.

    transitive
    to dissolve an injunction
  10. To shift from one shot to another by having the former fade out as the latter fades in.

    intransitive
  11. To resolve itself as by dissolution.

    intransitive
  12. To solve; to clear up; to resolve.

    obsolete
  13. To relax by pleasure; to make powerless.

  14. To separate a ligature into its component letters.

Where this word comes 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.

noun/dɪˈzɒlv/Received-Pronunciation/dɪˈzɑlv/General-American/dɪˈzɔlv/General-American
  1. a form of film punctuation in which there is a gradual transition from one scene to the next

Where this word comes 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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.