disassemble

Disassemble means to take apart or separate the components of a previously assembled object. The term is used across engineering, electronics, and computing and denotes reversing the assembly process. The noun form is disassembly.

In mechanical and hardware contexts, disassembly is performed for maintenance, repair, inspection, or salvage. Practitioners follow safety protocols, isolate power, document parts, store fasteners, and reuse or replace components. Proper tools and torque specifications are important to ensure safe reassembly.

In software and computing, disassembly refers to translating a compiled binary into assembly language or an intermediate representation. Disassembly is a static analysis technique used in reverse engineering, debugging, malware analysis, and software interoperability research. Publicly available tools include disassemblers and debuggers; differences exist between disassembly (assembly output) and decompilation (high-level code). Disassembly can be affected by optimizations, obfuscation, and architecture-specific instructions.

Legal and ethical considerations surround disassembly: it may be restricted by warranties or copyright, and some jurisdictions limit reverse engineering. Common applications include repair, interoperability, security research, and education.