To separate or disconnect joints; to take apart something that is jointed or connected at specific points.
From dis- + articulate (from Latin articulus, meaning joint or small section). The verb articulate originally meant 'to form joints,' so disarticulate means to undo that joining.
Anatomists use this word when they need to separate skeletal joints for study, and it's the technical opposite of 'articulate'—your joints articulate when they move together smoothly.
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