Make Your Point > Archived Issues > RAVEL & UNRAVEL

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pronounce RAVEL: Say it "RAV ull." To hear it, click here. pronounce UNRAVEL: Say it "un RAV ull." To hear it, click here. connect these words to others: Be honest: if you found this in your attic, would you take the time to unravel it, or would you toss it in the garbage? Maybe instead, you'd take a machete to it? If so, you'd be getting out your aggression, plus you'd be demonstrating the meaning of the phrase "to cut a G______ knot," meaning "to solve a complex problem not by patiently unraveling it but by using force, sneakiness, or cleverness." Could you recall that one? (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)   definitions: "Ravel" and "unravel" probably come from Dutch. To ravel is to tangle, to get tangled up. When a garment or a spool of thread ravels, it falls apart, tangling itself up in the process.  Here, the edges of the fabric are raveling: coming loose, getting all tangly. If you were to unravel these threads, you'd pull apart their tangles. To unravel something is to untangle it: to get rid of knots, to solve its mysteries or complexities, to make it all come loose or fall apart. If you finished unraveling the frayed edges of that fabric, and then you kept unraveling the fabric itself, you'd be pulling even more threads out. And if you keep going, you'll be left with a messy pile of threads, and you might decide to ravel them: to wind them back up neatly, to untangle them and wrap them back into a nice, orderly spool. Is your eye twitching? My eye is twitching. Because, as we've just seen, "ravel" can mean "to tangle" or "to untangle." Which actually makes sense when you think of how threads ravel (tangle) as they unravel (fall apart). "Ravel," then, is a contronym, or a contranym: a word with two opposite meanings. But let's not worry about it. These days, most of the time, "ravel" means either "to fray at the edges" or "to become complex." And, most of the time, "unravel" means "to come apart" or "to untangle." grammatical bits: Part of speech: They're verbs. "Ravel" can be either transitive ("I raveled myself up in the covers") or intransitive ("The edges of the sweater keep raveling"). "Unravel," too, can be either transitive ("Let's unravel this mystery;" "They just unraveled all the work we did") or intransitive ("Her life unraveled"). Other forms:  Raveled, unraveled; raveling, unraveling; raveler(s), unraveler(s). If you prefer, spell these words with a double L before the endings "-ed" or "-ing:" "ravelled," "unravelling," etc. The double L is uncommon, but not wrong, here in the US. how to use them: These words are common, and a great choice for suggesting that people, or situations, are like complex garments, spools of thread, or tangles of wires. Interestingly, you can talk about things being all raveled up neatly (like a skein of yarn, or like a well-knit sweater), or all raveled up chaotically (like a ball of Christmas lights, or like a tangle in your hair). And you can talk about things being unraveled neatly (such as mysteries and complexities) or chaotically (such as someone's patience, composure, good will, or sense of purpose in life). examples: "Some looked at him as they passed, at the man sitting quietly behind the wheel of a small car, with his invisible life ravelled out about him like a wornout sock, and went on."      — William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, 1929    "History consists for the most part of a complex bundle of deeply interwoven threads, social, cultural and economic forces that are not easily unraveled."    — Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980 has this page helped you understand "ravel" & "unravel"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about these words, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study them: Explain the meanings of "ravel" and "unravel" without saying any form of the words "twist" or "tangle." try them out: Fill in the blanks: "(Someone or something) had raveled itself into (something), and wouldn't unravel." Example 1: "On sleepy Monday mornings, my daughter has raveled herself into the sheets and won't unravel." Example 2: "Ambassador Rahel, unable to cope with seesawing changes in her life, had raveled herself like a sausage into the dirty airport curtain, and wouldn't unravel."    — Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things, 1997    If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for this month is MYP Wordles! You're likely familiar with the popular new game Wordle, created by Josh Wardle and recently purchased by the New York Times. You can play the real Wordle each day here. It's fun, simple, and addictive. You try to guess the five-letter word. Each time you guess, you see how close you are: a green box means you've gotten the right letter in the right spot; a yellow box means you've gotten a letter that's in the word but in the wrong spot; a gray box means you've guessed a letter that isn't in the word at all.  There's only one real Wordle every day. But luckily for us, the good folks at StriveMath.com have created a copycat Wordle tool, so you can play as many Wordles as you want, and even create and share your own. So, in each issue this month, try the MYP Wordle linked below. The answer will be a word we've studied. I'll give a series of hints that you can reveal if you choose to. If you can't figure out the answer, you can let the puzzle reveal it, or you can scroll all the way down. Enjoy! Click here to play today's MYP Wordle. If you need some hints, highlight the hidden white text below.    The letter it starts with is… O    The vowels it includes are… O and A    The part of speech is… noun    The definition is… waste, crumbs, or little leftover pieces of stuff that you don't need; figuratively, useless stuff, worthless stuff, or garbage review these words: 1. A near opposite of RAVELED in its literal sense, as in "the fabric's raveled edge," is A. TIDY or SEALED. B. AGED or WEATHERED. C. STAMPED or INDENTED. 2. A writer for the New York Times referred to a mini-series as "really a _____ of short stories raveled _____ the title character, Olive." A. stew .. by B. collage .. onto C. skein .. around Answers to the review questions: 1. A 2. C Answer to the MYP Wordle: Offal. a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.