unravel

1 to separate the various strands of it took us forever to unravel the jumbled mass of Christmas tree lights Synonyms disentangle, ravel (out), unbraid, unlay, unsnarl, untangle, untwine, untwist, unweave Related Words fray, fret; smooth, straighten (out); uncoil, undo, unknot, unlace, unroll, unstring, unthread, untie, unwind Near Antonyms braid, knot, lace, plait, ply, splice, tie, wind Antonyms entangle, snarl, tangle

2 to find an answer for through reasoning unraveled the mystery Synonyms answer, break, crack, dope (out), figure out, puzzle (out), resolve, riddle (out), solve, unriddle, work, work outRelated Words conclude, decide, deduce, gather, infer, judge, reason; clear (up), iron out, straighten (out), unscramble, untangle, untie; assume, conjecture, divine, guess, presume, speculate; decipher, decode