pick apart
verb
Simple meaning
To review or analyse in great detail.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pikuhpahrtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɪkəˈpɑɹt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
idiomatictransitive
To review or analyse in great detail
idiomatictransitive
To criticise (especially small details).
idiomatictransitivesports
To overcome by skilled execution.
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pick, apart.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To review or analyse in great detail
Used this way, pick apart is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.