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disentangled

disentangled

4.6
Free from knots or tangles and easy to understand
  • adjective
  • /ˌdɪsɪnˈtæŋɡəld/
translation icon : desenredado
  • She carefully disentangled the necklace from her hair before putting it on.

Examples

  • After hours of work, the threads of the fabric were finally disentangled and ready for sewing.

  • The story became clearer once the author disentangled the chaotic plot points.

  • Now they're disentangled; they get up groggily and circle each other...

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Unchecked U.S. power, shorn of legitimacy and disentangled from the postwar norms and institutions of the international order, will usher in a more hostile international system, making it far harder to achieve American interests.

    Academic text (2002)

Synonyms

untied
vsdisentangled
2 1.6

Free from ropes or chains and able to move

focuses on clearing knots or complications rather than release from bindings
unentangled
vsdisentangled
4.6

Free from knots and tangles and easy to understand, like a necklace

means the same but is a different word form
untangled
vsdisentangled
3.4

Free of knots and twists and easy to separate or understand

also covers making things clear rather than only removing physical knots
unsnarled
vsdisentangled
6.7

Not tangled after someone untied or straightened it

also refers to clarifying confusion rather than just straightening knots
unmuddled
vsdisentangled
6.3

Clear and easy to understand without confusion

also implies removing physical knots or making complex things simple

Antonyms

876 5.4

Difficult to understand or deal with because it has many connected parts

4 6.8

Very complicated and hard to follow, like rules or relationships

How Untangled

free
1.0
disentangled
4.6
tangled
7 3.3
knotted
1.9

Surface Forms

disentangled positive

Morphology

disentangled = disentangle (transparent) = dis + en + tangle + ed

The adjective is a regular past-participial formation from 'disentangle' meaning having been freed from tangles or complications.

Etymology

Disentangled comes from the prefix dis- meaning 'not' or 'remove' and tangle meaning a 'mess of twisted threads', so it literally means 'made untangled'. So something disentangled is freed from knots or confusion, like a necklace or a set of wires that is now easy to use.