To unpack means to remove items from a container and put them in their proper places. When your family returns from vacation, you unpack your suitcase by taking out your clothes and putting them away. When you move to a new house, you unpack boxes full of books, dishes, and belongings.

The word also means to examine something complicated by breaking it down into smaller, more understandable parts. When your teacher says, “Let's unpack this math problem,” she means working through it step by step to understand what it's really asking. When you unpack a confusing story, you might discuss the characters' motivations, identify the main conflict, and figure out what the author was trying to say.

This second meaning comes from the idea of taking things out of a packed container to see them clearly. Just as you can't see what's in a closed suitcase, you sometimes can't understand a complex idea until you unpack it by examining each piece separately. A scientist might unpack experimental results, or a debate team might unpack an opponent's argument to find its weaknesses.