dipanare

to unravel

verb dee-pah-NAH-reh Rare

Origin: From Latin dispanare, from dis- + pannus (cloth).

Also means

to sort out

Usage Note

Dipanare literally means to wind yarn off a skein, but it is almost always used figuratively: dipanare una matassa (to unravel a tangle) or dipanare una questione (to sort out a complicated matter). It takes avere as its auxiliary. The phrase dipanare la matassa is idiomatic for untangling a complex situation.

Examples

"Dobbiamo dipanare questa matassa di problemi."

Natural Translation

We need to unravel this tangle of problems.

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