explain

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

v. t. expound, solve, elucidate, resolve, fathom, account for; demonstrate, construe, interpret, define, describe, develop, detail, criticize, comment. See answer, attribution, interpretation.

II

(Roget's IV) v.

Syn. interpret, explicate, account for, elucidate, illustrate, clarify, illuminate, make clear, describe, expound, teach, manifest, reveal, disclose, point up, point out, demonstrate, tell, refine, read, translate, paraphrase, render, put in other words, decipher, assign a meaning to, construe, define, disentangle, justify, rationalize, untangle, unravel, make plain, unfold, come to the point, put across, throw light upon, show by example, restate, rephrase, simplify, demystify, annotate, comment on, remark upon, offer an explanation, resolve, clear up, set right, put on the right track, unscramble, spell out, articulate, go into detail, get to the bottom of, figure out, speak out, emphasize, cast light upon, get across, get over, get through, get to, bring out, work out, solve, make sense of, make oneself understood, hammer into one's head*, put in plain English*.

Ant. puzzle, confuse*, confound.

Syn.- explain implies making clear or intelligible something that is not known or understood [ to explain how a machine operates ] ; expound implies a systematic and thorough explanation, often by a person having expert knowledge [ to expound a theory ] ; explicate implies a scholarly analysis or exposition that is developed in detail [ the explication of a Biblical passage ] ; elucidate implies a shedding light upon by clear and specific explanation, illustration, etc. [ to elucidate the country's foreign policy ] ; to interpret is to bring out meanings not immediately apparent, as by translation, searching insight, or special knowledge [ how do you interpret his behavior? ] ; construe suggests a careful interpretation of something especially where meaning is ambiguous [ her silence was construed as agreement ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) v.

clarify, clear up, illustrate, explicate, elucidate, expound, interpret, define, *make plain, spell out, describe, account for, justify.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) verb 1. To make understandable: construe, decipher, explicate, expound, interpret, spell out. Archaic: enucleate. Idiom: put into plain English. See EXPLAIN. 2. To find a solution for: clear up, decipher, resolve, solve, unravel. Informal: dope out, figure out. Idiom: get to the bottom of. See ASK, REASON. 3. To offer reasons for or a cause of: account for, justify, rationalize. See EXPLAIN.