explain

How to use explain in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for explain.

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Editorial note

Youll have just 5 minutes to explain it.

Examples13

Definitions3

Parts of speech1

Quick take

make plain and comprehensible; "He explained the laws of physics to his students"

Meaning at a glance

The clearest senses and uses of explain gathered in one view.

verb

make plain and comprehensible; "He explained the laws of physics to his students"

verb

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

verb

serve as a reason or cause or justification of; "Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work"; "Her recent divorce may explain her reluctance to date again"

Definitions

Core meanings and parts of speech for explain.

verb

make plain and comprehensible; "He explained the laws of physics to his students"

verb

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

verb

serve as a reason or cause or justification of; "Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work"; "Her recent divorce may explain her reluctance to date again"

Example sentences

Youll have just 5 minutes to explain it.

If they wanted to be up front about it, they'd explain it on the home page.

If you can link to a case number, we can at least try to understand or explain what happened.

Their examples are outdated, insecure, and don't really explain why things work in a certain way.

I don't have time to read your 20-page manual/treatise on a utility that doesn't explain how to actually use the thing until page 17.

The only way to reconcile their thoughts and actions is to explain that, in fact, they must really love this job and therefore should work hard at it.

They explain which data was compromised and the potential implications.

I didn't get a chance to explain because they threatened me if I told anybody on my team what happened while I was collecting my things.

Maybe somebody can explain this better to me -- but if you freeze up in interviews, are you also going to freeze up in developer meetings?

" Maybe somebody can explain this better to me -- but if you freeze up in interviews, are you also going to freeze up in developer meetings?

It is a metaphor used to explain different psychological states.

Sometimes he'd get their wives/husbands on the phone, and he'd nicely explain that he was an artist, and would they mind if he borrowed the family photo album?

Copying the text just incase FB decides they don't like it---Hey everyone, we're going to be deleting our Facebook page in the next couple of weeks, but we wanted to explain why before we do.