elucidate
Usage
What are other ways to say elucidate?
To elucidate is to throw light on what before was dark and obscure, usually by illustration and commentary and sometimes by elaborate explanation: They asked him to elucidate his statement. To explain is to make plain, clear, or intelligible something that is not known or understood: to explain a theory or a problem. To expound is to give a methodical, detailed, scholarly explanation of something, usually Scriptures, doctrines, or philosophy: to expound the doctrine of free will. To interpret is to give the meaning of something by paraphrase, by translation, or by an explanation based on personal opinion: to interpret a poem or a symbol.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But before the officer could elucidate a satisfying response, agents drove up and surrounded Zemian and Amundson’s vehicle.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Members of Congress will want Warsh to elucidate his plans for bringing inflation down to the Fed’s 2% target.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 11, 2026
"There are many questions that we will only elucidate when we are able to go back," Grossi told reporters.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026
We chronicle, explicate, elucidate and constantly “re-adjudicate” historical events and personages.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2024
Gene replication must explain how a multicellular organism emerges from a single cell—and errors in replication might elucidate how a spontaneous metabolic illness, or a devastating mental disease, might arise in a previously unaffected family.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
In a collection of his reviews, “Big Screen, Little Screen,” I was struck by the way he elucidates the alchemy of Page’s acting.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
The novel also elucidates the strange limbo of the American immigration quota process, which “resembled a bakery system gone awry.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
This knowledge elucidates why Gadd "was very keen for Martha to be layered."
From Salon ● Apr. 27, 2024
The newly proposed model elucidates the difference in entropy production between active microswimmers and externally driven particles.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2023
The electric theory explains and elucidates all natural philosophy and all material phenomena, and is as a scientist has well said, "the best exposition ever offered of the physics and metaphysics of the universe."
From The Universe a Vast Electric Organism by George Woodward Warder
“The Devil Wears Prada” was a heaping dose of wish-fulfillment, but it was also the very movie that carefully and artfully elucidated the values of magazines and fashion, emphasizing the art form of both.
From Salon ● May 6, 2026
"Our study elucidated novel mitochondrial mechanisms underlying anti-aging and longevity, and provided new insights into strategies for promoting healthspan and extending lifespan," highlights Dr. Inoue.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 19, 2025
Still, the impressive power of the book club might have been better elucidated if details about its impact in other Eastern Bloc countries were brought into the story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2025
But the specific pathways by which the virus does so are still being elucidated, and curative treatments are nonexistent.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2024
But he did haul our water and cut wood, and he elucidated for us the many daily mysteries of Kilanga.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
The most elucidating superimposes a Pietà by Anne-Louis Girodet, David’s little-known pupil, over David’s “Marat.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
McPherson takes liberties, setting the play in 1900 central Ukraine and, perhaps more consequently, elucidating the psychology where Chekhov was a tad more ambiguous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
Without elucidating those necessary subtleties, “The Monkey” has no more value than the glib words of comfort whispered by a family friend who only came to the wake for the free food.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 2025
"MR-SPI is particularly valuable for elucidating causal relationships in complex diseases like Alzheimer's, where traditional approaches struggle," Liu explained.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2024
Instead she heard her mother, Euphrosyne Stephanides, speaking in this very cocoonery years ago, elucidating the mysteries of silkworms—“To have good silk, you have to be pure,” she used to tell her daughter.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Vocabulary lists containing elucidate
Let There Be Light: Lum and Luc
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 16–19
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