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:
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
On the West Coast, he found more “openness” and an “anything goes” ethos that saw the struggling artist move further into music as a means to elucidate and explore creativity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2025
"Our next goal is to elucidate the whole picture of the interactions between renin cells, smooth muscle cells, nerves and inflammatory cells under RAS inhibition," said researcher Maria Luisa S. Sequeira-Lopez, MD.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2024
Which is of course idiotic in the kind of profound and multivalent way that only an English teacher could fully elucidate.
From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan
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
On a Zoom chat from Paris, Debicki elucidates further.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2024
"This study elucidates the contribution of physical forces in immune evasion and underscores the importance of targeting pathogen movement to combat intracellular infections," Yu said.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 1, 2023
In this passage Longinus elucidates one figure by another,—a not unusual practice with that elegant writer.
From Notes and Queries, Number 84, June 7, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Geneologists, etc. by Various
“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
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
The team further elucidated the ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic phase selection rule of magnetic interactions by analyzing the relative orientation of magnetic moments between nearest-neighbour and next-nearest neighbour sites.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 18, 2024
The region’s transformation from fertile woodland to eroded scrub or desert has been elucidated by paleobotanists and archaeologists.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
"But now it's about elucidating that activity and understanding why D5 and similar molecules are non-hallucinogenic when they're full agonists."
From Science Daily ● May 14, 2026
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
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
Their ineptitude complicates the journey, elucidating misconnections and cross-cultural exchanges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2025
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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