Meaning & use
analytical skill
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
The ability to study information carefully, spot patterns and reasons, and reach sound conclusions or solutions.
Grammar: Mostly plural: strong analytical skills; the singular is used for one specific ability.
Patterns
- strong analytical skills
- analytical skills in something
The job requires strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
Her analytical skill showed when she found the error hidden in the budget.
Chess is often said to improve analytical skills in children.
Word forms
| plural | analytical skills |
|---|
Common combinations
- strong analytical skills
- We are looking for someone with strong analytical skills.
- develop analytical skills
- The course helps students develop analytical skills.
- use analytical skills
- You will need to use your analytical skills to interpret the survey results.
- excellent analytical skills
- He listed excellent analytical skills on his resume.
- analytical skills test
- Applicants sit an analytical skills test during the interview day.
Synonyms and how they differ
- critical thinking
- Critical thinking stresses judging whether claims are sound, whereas analytical skill stresses taking things apart to understand them.
- problem-solving
- Problem-solving focuses on finding solutions, while analytical skill is the examining part that comes first.
- reasoning
- Reasoning is a broader, more general mental process; analytical skill sounds more like a trained workplace ability.
Word family
- analyze verb
- to examine something closely in order to understand it
- analysis noun
- a detailed examination of something
- analyst noun
- a person whose job is to analyze information
- analytical adjective
- using careful, logical study
Commonly confused: analytical skill or analytic?
analytical skill vs analytic
Analytic and analytical overlap, but analytical is the usual choice for describing people and skills.
Practice
An employer wants a candidate who can examine data and draw sensible conclusions. Which phrase names this ability?
Choose one answer.
Analytical skills means the ability to study information and reason from it. The others are real abilities but not about examining data.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “analytical skill”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.