éclaircissement

American  

[ey-kler-sees-mahn] / eɪ klɛr sisˈmɑ̃ /

noun

French.

plural

éclaircissements

1. clarification; explanation.

2. (initial capital letter) the Enlightenment.

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Example Sentences

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

They had come within a single step of an éclaircissement, and when but another movement would have flooded their souls with light, some malignant influence had seized them by the throats.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, July, 1867. by Various

But those first years of their married life had not passed without a serious, and to her completely decisive, éclaircissement.

From The Pilot and his Wife by Lie, Jonas Lauritz Idemil

When the éclaircissement comes, it appears to me—as Mr. Carlyle said of Loyola that he ought to have consented to be damned—that Marius ought to have consented at least to be kicked.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by Saintsbury, George

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 Saintsbury, George