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# untangle

«untangle» in Mova's school dictionary: **To undo knots or twists in string, hair, wires and so on** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (untangle, untangles, untangled, untangling)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To undo knots or twists in string, hair, wires and so on. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/#m1)

2) To make a confusing problem or story clear. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday life: untangle headphones, hair, fishing line, Christmas lights. In maths and stories: untangle a tricky problem step by step. Tells the reader someone is patiently sorting out a muddle.

### examples

- Mum untangled the knots in my hair. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/#x1)
- It took ages to untangle the fairy lights. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/#x2)
- Can you help me untangle my headphones? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/#x3)
- The detective untangled the mystery at last. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/#x4)
- Let's untangle this word problem by writing what we know. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/#x5)
- The fisherman untangled his line. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/#x6)

### note

Regular verb: untangled. Opposite: tangle. Takes «an»: «an untangled rope».

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «untangle» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/untangle/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.