disentangled
- adjective
- /ˌdɪsɪnˈtæŋɡəld/
- She carefully disentangled the necklace from her hair before putting it on.
Examples
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After hours of work, the threads of the fabric were finally disentangled and ready for sewing.
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The story became clearer once the author disentangled the chaotic plot points.
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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
Free from ropes or chains and able to move
Free from knots and tangles and easy to understand, like a necklace
Free of knots and twists and easy to separate or understand
Not tangled after someone untied or straightened it
Clear and easy to understand without confusion
Antonyms
How Untangled
Surface Forms
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.