Meaning of explain | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
   transitive
2. To make something plain or comprehensible: Let me explain.
3. To give the reason for, justification for, or cause of.
   transitive
4. To dismiss or minimize the significance of (something) by means of an explanation or excuse: There is no way to explain away my carelessness.
5. To make flat, smooth out.
   obsolete
6. To conceal or make light of a fault or offense:extenuate, gloss over, gloze (over), palliate, sleek over, whitewash.
7. To unfold or make visible.
   obsolete
8. giving an explanation. There are explanatory notes in this book. verklarend تَفْسيري، إيضاحي обяснителен explicativo vysvětlující erklärend forklarende επεξηγηματικός explicativo selgitav توضیحی selittävä explicatif מְבָאֵר व्याख्यात्मक koji tumači, razjašnjava (meg)magyarázó menjelaskan skÿringar- esplicativo 説明の 설명을 위한 aiškinamasis []skaidrojošs catatan keterangan verklarendforklarende objaśniający توضيحى explicativo explicativ пояснительный vysvetľujúci pojasnjevalen koji objašnjava förkla...
9. To make something plain or intelligible.
   intransitive
10. to get rid of (difficulties etc) by clever explaining. She could not explain away the missing money. goedpraat, wegredeneer يَجِد التفسير давам задоволително обяснение dar uma explicação (dostatečně) vysvětlit vertuschen bortforklare δικαιολογώ dar explicaciones õigustust leidma توجیه کردن antaa selitys justifier לְהָסִיר סָפֶק व्याख्या द्वारा समझाना objasniti, razjasniti kimagyaráz (vmit) memberi alasan gera efasemdir/ótta að engu með útskÿringum spiegare, giustificare 言い抜ける (의혹 따위를) 잘 설명하여 ...
    etc
11. vt. explicar, aclarar; ___ the procedure → explique el procedimiento.
12. To make plain or comprehensible.
13. To define; expound: We explained our plan to the committee.
14. To offer reasons for or a cause of; justify: explain an error.
15. (when tr, may take a clause as object) to make (something) comprehensible, esp by giving a clear and detailed account of the relevant structure, operation, surrounding circumstances, etc

Equivalents

Examples

“The issue was explained to the governor in detail.”

“The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained.”

“Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.”

“He concisely explains that Whig histories tend to "praise revolutions [for history of science, we could read novelties, ideas or individuals] provided they have been successful, emphasise certain principles of progress in the past and produce a story which is the ratification if not the glorification of the present".”

“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; […].”

“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.”

“She tried to explain but he wouldn’t listen.”

“It is easy to modify the account to take this into account, by explaining not just in terms of a set of reasons but in terms of a set of reason–weight pairs.”

“Like their Western counterparts, local media engages in shorthand - it reports rather than explains.”

CEFR level