solve

solve, *resolve, unfold, unravel, decipher can all mean to make clear or apparent or intelligible what is obscure or mysterious or incomprehensible.

Solve is the most general in meaning and suggestion in this group; it implies the finding of a satisfactory answer or solution, usually to something of at least moderate difficulty

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the mystery and disquieting meaninglessness of existence . . . were solved for me now— L. P. Smith

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create a difficulty rather than solve one—A. M. Young

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Resolve (see also ANALYZE), as contrasted with solve, is likely to indicate analytic arrangement and consideration of the various phases or items of a problem or situation rather than finding a final solution or answer and is likely to suggest dispelling of confusion or perplexity by a clear formulation of questions or issues

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you may find it of some interest to be told that the law has had to struggle with these problems and to know how it has resolved them— Cardozo

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In some situations this process may achieve an answer, especially a ready or summary one

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he was at the same time resolving successive tangles of intrigue against himself and his policy— Belloc

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it was realized that the method of resolving apparent contradictions by liquidating one of the contradictories is not the way to arrive at true solutions— Times Lit. Sup.

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Unfold implies continuous opening up, clarifying, and making more and more clear and patent until a full solution or resolution is apparent

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went around and through and behind a situation, unfolding it ... to include possibilities he hadn't known were upon its horizon— Mary Austin

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saw the great truth of evolution unfolded— Kaempffert

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the method of unfolding the course of a plot must in some ways be different in a play meant for acting and in a book meant for reading— Montague

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Unravel stresses the notion of making a clear and orderly rearrangement of something entangled or a simple ordering of something complicated, especially by patient endeavor

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the details are difficult to unravel at this distance of time— H. O. Taylor

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a whole elaborate plot may be unraveled by discovering the one relevant detail— Aydelotte

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Decipher stresses the notion of finding the meaning or significance of something very obscure, clouded, cryptic, or enigmatic

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placing of a writer or other artist in his proper rank or in deciphering the less obvious intentions of his work— Montague

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the results, so far as they could be deciphered from the puzzling procedure and twisted combinations, confirmed what had gone before— Atlantic

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Analogous words: *decide, determine, settle: *illuminate, enlighten: interpret, elucidate, *explain