explain

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   make plain and comprehensible

   The teacher explained the laws of physics to their students.

2. 2
   verb

   define

   The committee explained their plan for fund-raising to the Dean

3. 3
   verb

   To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.

   The issue was explained to the governor in detail.

4. 4
   verb

   To give the reason for, justification for, or cause of.

   It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

5. 5
   verb

   To unfold or make visible.

   April 14, 1684, John Evelyn, a letter sent to the Royal Society concerning the damage done to his gardens by the preceding winter The horse-chestnut is […] ready to explain its leaf.

6. 6
   verb

   To make something plain or intelligible.

   She tried to explain but he wouldn’t listen.

7. 7
   verb

   serve as a reason or cause or justification of

8. 8
   verb

   To make flat, smooth out.

Etymology

From Middle English explanen, from Old French explaner, from Latin explanō (“to flatten, spread out, make plain or clear, explain”), from ex- (“out”) + planō (“to flatten, make level”), from planus (“level, plain”); see plain and plane. Compare esplanade, splanade. Displaced Old English reċċan.