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tangle

tangle

22 3.9
A mass of things like hair or wires twisted together and hard to separate
  • noun
  • /ˈtæŋɡəl/
: maraña
  • Her eyes peer out through a wild tangle of hair like those of a cornered animal.
  • tangle net

And there's no tangles, no knots.

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Examples

  • There, the streets trailed off into rubble, the finely tended parks into tangles of wild vegetation.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Her red hair was dark brown with moisture and hung in a tangle across her shoulders.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Six or eight times I tried it, but the tangle of my fingers only got worse.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • A tangle of garlands in your hair.

  • Artus reached out, but his friend was gone, lost in a tangle of trees and vines.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • On the ridge top, Brave Man stepped out from the tangle of people clustered at the kill site.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Better, the village was surrounded by the lush tangle and wonderful disrepair of old forest.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • We rolled on the wet grass in a tangle of skirts and squeals.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • All at once, Emily let out a yelp and plunged into a tangle of honeysuckle.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The little girl's hair was a tangle of curls and knots that needed careful brushing.

Synonyms

mat
vstangle
4 1.8

A thick mass of things tangled together, like hair or seaweed

is any confused mass, not only dense or compact
mess of wires
vstangle
1 3.4

A tangled group of cables that looks untidy

is a general confused mass across any materials, not only wires
intertwinement
vstangle
1 7.0

Things twisted and woven together so they are closely connected

is focused on a confused mass rather than the relation or process
entwinement
vstangle
7.2

A state in which things are twisted or woven closely together

is about a confused mass resulting from that action, not the action itself

Antonyms

826 1.0

The arrangement of things in a neat sequence

181 3.0

How easy it is to understand what someone says or writes

Compounds

6.8

A large brown seaweed that grows in cold water near the coast

tangle orchid
  • Australian
9.9

An orchid with tangled roots, thin wiry stems, and small fragrant green flowers

How Tangled

tangle
22 3.9
matting
2 5.3
pile
447 1.9

Surface Forms

tangle singular
tangles plural

Etymology

Tangle first named things that were caught or hooked together, so a tangle is a mass of hair, wires, or plants all twisted and stuck together. That's why we call a messy bunch of cords or hair a tangle.