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untangle

/ʌnˈtæŋɡəl/ · un·tan·gle
verb
  1. To remove tangles or knots from something, especially hair or rope. She carefully untangled the snarled cords before storing them away.
  2. To remove confusion, complexity, or mystery from a situation or problem. After hours of discussion, the team finally untangled the budget discrepancies.
Did you know? The term “untangle” gained a technical twist in the 1990s when computer scientists coined “graph untangling” to describe algorithms that redraw tangled network diagrams without edge crossings.
Written by Lexi Wordsworth, Dictionary Editor 0 lookups Added Jul 20, 2026