tangle

Syllables: tan·gle/ˈtæŋ.ɡəl//ˈteɪ̯ŋɡəl/

tangle verb: to mix together or intertwine.

Verb

tangle (third-person singular simple present tangles, present participle tangling, simple past and past participle tangled)

(transitive) To mix together or intertwine.

Synonyms:

entangle, knot, mat, snarl
(intransitive) To become mixed together or intertwined.
- Her hair was tangled from a day in the wind.
- By the afternoon it seemed as if the storm had passed and that frost was setting in; but in the evening the wind rose to gale force, bringing telegraph poles down like skittles and tangling power and telephone lines.1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 137
Synonyms:

dishevel, tousle

Antonyms:

untangle, unsnarl
(figuratively, intransitive) To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.
- Don't tangle with someone three times your size.
- He tangled with the law.
Synonyms:

argue, conflict, dispute, fight
(transitive) To catch and hold.
- tangled in amorous nets1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 2
- When my simple weakness strays, / Tangled in forbidden ways.1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple
Synonyms:

ensnare, entrap

Noun (1)

tangle (plural tangles)

A tangled twisted mass.

Synonyms:

knot, mess, snarl
A complicated or confused state or condition.
- I tried to sort through this tangle and got nowhere.
- Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is...2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
Synonyms:

maze, snarl
An argument, conflict, dispute, or fight.

Synonyms:

argument, conflict, dispute, fight
A region of the projection of a knot such that the knot crosses its perimeter exactly four times.
A paired helical fragment of tau protein found in a nerve cell and associated with Alzheimer's disease.
A form of art which consists of sections filled with repetitive patterns.

Noun (2)

tangle (countable and uncountable, plural tangles)

Any large type of seaweed, especially a species of Laminaria.
- […] if with thee the roaring wells
  ⁠Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine;
  ⁠And hands so often clasp’d in mine,
  Should toss with tangle and with shells.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto X”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
- You've never smelled the tangle o' the Isles.1917, “The Road to the Isles”, in Kenneth Macleod, editor, Songs of the Hebrides
(in plural) An instrument consisting essentially of an iron bar to which are attached swabs, or bundles of frayed rope, or other similar substances, used to capture starfishes, sea urchins, and other similar creatures living at the bottom of the sea.
(Scotland) Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person.

Proper noun capitalized: Tangle

Tangle

A barangay of Mexico, Pampanga, Philippines.

tangle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

tangle in Hindi

to tangle, entangle; to fasten: उलझाना uljhānā
tangle, knot: गुत्थी gutthī

tangle in Tamil

சிக்கலாக்கு, தெத்து

tangle in Urdu

گتھی, جھنجھٹ, مشکل, الجھن, عقدہ, الجھنا

tangle in Bengali

জট, গিঁট

More languagesFewer languages

tangle in Telugu: చిక్కు cikku, మలక malaka
tangle in Malayalam: കുടുക്ക് kuṭukkŭ
tangle in Kannada: ತೊಡಕು, ಸಿಕ್ಕು, ಗೋಜು, ಗೊಂದಲದ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ
tangle in Punjabi: ਗੁੱਛਾ gucchā
tangle in Malay: kusut

Examples of tangle in a sentence

Compared to the last time they'd tangled with the U.S.2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 19:47 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04...
Since then, they have tangled in the courts.2021 August 20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
He spent the night at a friend's place unable to sleep and wondering how he got himself tangled in this mess.2004, Eve Ikuenobe-Otaigbe, Tangled, →ISBN, page 80:
Why else would she have tangled him in spells of illusion to get him to keep her company?2014, Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory, The House of the Four Winds, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with tangle

Synonyms of tangle

12 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of tangle

Forms of tangle

Verb
third-person singular present	tangles
present participle	tangling
past participle	tangled
past	tangled
Noun
plural	tangles

Past tense of tangle: tangled

Plural of tangle: tangles

Origin of tangle

From Middle English tanglen, probably of North Germanic origin, compare Swedish taggla (“to disorder”), Old Norse þǫngull, þang (“tangle; seaweed”), see Etymology 2 below.

Of North Germanic origin, such as Danish tang or Swedish tång, from Old Norse þongull, þang. See also Norwegian tongul, Faroese tongul, Icelandic þöngull.

Words formed from tangle

Words that rhyme with tangle

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tangle

What does tangle mean?: Tangle means to mix together or intertwine.
What is tangle in Hindi?: Tangle in Hindi is उलझाना (uljhānā), गुत्थी (gutthī). See Tangle meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tangle in a sentence?: Compared to the last time they'd tangled with the U.S.
What part of speech is tangle?: Tangle can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tangle?: Tangle is pronounced /ˈtæŋ.ɡəl/.
What is the past tense of tangle?: The past tense of tangle is tangled.

Words near tangle in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tangle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “tangle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tangle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.