Make Your Editor Cry: Analysis (Awkward Plural)
BLUF: (Bottom Line Up Front)
The plural of analysis is analyses.
analysis: a detailed examination of anything complex in order to understand its nature or to determine its essential features: a thorough study
The singular of analysis is analysis. The plural of analysis is analyses. Note that the -i in the singular is transformed into an -e in the plural form of the word.
This is because the English word comes from Medieval Latin, and so it follows the standard Latin rules for plurals. That’s a fun fact because the Latin word was itself borrowed from Greek análysis meaning “loosing, releasing, breaking something down into its elements, solution of a problem,” which came from the Greek root analýein meaning “to loosen, undo, dissolve, resolve into constituent elements.”
All that to say, the noun analysis has a Greek root, which is the derivation of the plural analyses. There is no alternative English plural form.
Examples:
Regression analysis was used to predict the outcome.
He compiled the history and performed an analysis of the writings of all the ecclesiastical writers of the first thirteen centuries.
Meta-analyses are now a hallmark of evidence-based medicine.
The findings from all these analyses are important.
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.
