A dissection is the careful cutting apart of something, usually a plant or animal, to study its internal structure. In science class, students might perform a dissection of a frog or earthworm to see how its organs fit together and understand how living things work on the inside.

A biologist might dissect a flower to examine its reproductive parts, or a medical student might dissect a preserved specimen to learn anatomy. The process requires precision and attention: you carefully separate parts to see how they connect and function.

Beyond biology labs, people use dissect to mean analyzing something thoroughly. A teacher might dissect a poem line by line to understand its meaning, or a sports commentator might dissect a play to show exactly what went wrong. When you dissect an argument, you're taking it apart piece by piece to examine its logic.

The key idea is systematic examination: breaking something down into its components to understand the whole better. Whether you're working with an actual scalpel in a lab or carefully analyzing a complex problem, dissection means patient, methodical investigation.