éclaircissement
Americannoun
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éclaircissements
plural
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clarification; explanation.
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(initial capital letter) the Enlightenment.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Explanation
Eclaircissement is clarifying something that initially seemed impossible to understand. Once your teacher sits down and patiently explains how to solve an equation, an eclaircissement can finally take place. When something obscure or incomprehensible is cleared up for you, that's eclaircissement. It's a bit like enlightenment, producing a significant change in the way you perceive or understand. You might experience an eclaircissement about your mysterious and cranky neighbor when you see him tenderly caring for his pet pigeons; you understand him more clearly. The French éclaircissement comes from the verb éclaircir, "to clear up," and a Latin root meaning "clear."
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:
Now the coincidence of this meeting jolts him into an éclaircissement: "You're slow," said Loki, "but you get there in the end."
From The Guardian ● Aug. 19, 2011
A continuance of Court interviews and gossip, with the garrulity of Nemours himself and the Vidame, as well as the dropping of a letter by the latter, brings a complete éclaircissement nearer and nearer.
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by George Saintsbury
I am at your service," he said; "but I would advise you to wait before we come to an éclaircissement.
From The Village Notary by J?zsef E?tv?s
When their meal is over, then comes the éclaircissement.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 by Various
Should he return to it and stay till circumstances favoured him with an éclaircissement?
From The Fatal Cord And The Falcon Rover by Mayne Reid
The éclaircissements which the occasion required were followed by the resignation of the secretary.
From Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2 Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched by John Frederick Schroeder
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
