elaborate
worked out with great care and nicety of detail; executed with great minuteness: elaborate preparations; elaborate care.
marked by intricate and often excessive detail; complicated; ornate.
to work out carefully or minutely; develop to perfection.
to add details to; expand.
to produce or develop by labor.
Physiology. to convert (food, plasma, etc.) by means of chemical processes into a substance more suitable for use within the body.
to add details in writing, speaking, etc.; give additional or fuller treatment (usually followed by on or upon): to elaborate upon a theme or an idea.
Origin of elaborate
1synonym study For elaborate
Other words for elaborate
1 | perfected, painstaking |
3 | refine, improve |
7 | refine, improve |
Opposites for elaborate
Other words from elaborate
- e·lab·o·rate·ly, adverb
- e·lab·o·rate·ness, noun
- e·lab·o·ra·tive, adjective
- e·lab·o·ra·tor, noun
- non·e·lab·o·rate, adjective
- non·e·lab·o·rate·ly, adverb
- non·e·lab·o·rate·ness, noun
- non·e·lab·o·rat·ing, adjective
- non·e·lab·o·ra·tive, adjective
- qua·si-e·lab·o·rate, adjective
- qua·si-e·lab·o·rate·ly, adverb
- self-e·lab·o·rat·ed, adjective
- su·per·e·lab·o·rate, adjective
- su·per·e·lab·o·rate·ly, adverb
- su·per·e·lab·o·rate·ness, noun
- un·e·lab·o·rate, adjective
- un·e·lab·o·rate·ly, adverb
- un·e·lab·o·rate·ness, noun
- un·e·lab·o·rat·ed, adjective
- well-e·lab·o·rat·ed, adjective
Words Nearby elaborate
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use elaborate in a sentence
Like many recent trends, they found initial popularity among K-pop fans, who created elaborate digital collages of bands.
The internet of protest is being built on single-page websites | Tanya Basu | August 27, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewThere’s paradoxical thinking, or the elaborated social identity model.
The UK tested a classic psychological tactic by paying 64 million restaurant bills | Olivia Goldhill | August 27, 2020 | QuartzThis is exactly our time as advertisers to elaborate on the challenges that our audience can overcome by using the product.
Five great display and video advertising tactics to increase relevance and revenue in a cookie-less world | Anastasia-Yvoni Spiliopoulou | August 24, 2020 | Search Engine WatchIt is difficult to execute elaborate productions and remain socially distant.
‘Dying to work’: With A-list talent sitting at home, publishers eye video collaboration opportunities with them | Max Willens | August 13, 2020 | DigidayIt might well mean data encryption, but the EDPC didn’t elaborate.
In an email exchange a friend said many had repeated this same succinct review but they could never elaborate.
‘Empire’ Review: Hip-Hop Musical Chairs with an Insane Soap Opera Twist | Judnick Mayard | January 8, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTA senior Iranian official in Pakistan later confirmed the strike took place, declining to elaborate.
The Dangerous Drug-Funded Secret War Between Iran and Pakistan | Umar Farooq | December 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHitchcock loved to tell stories, elaborate, complicated rough drafts for movies he would never make.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHis most elaborate camera maneuvers seemed almost diabolical in their complexity.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAnd he tells Bob Boyle to start making sketches for the more elaborate sequences.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe same two impulses are said to lie at the root of the elaborate art of personal adornment developed by savages.
Children's Ways | James SullyThe attempt at social change threatens a social revolution in which the whole elaborate mechanism would burst into fragments.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice | Stephen LeacockIt contained an elaborate account of all the comets recorded in history , down to the year 1665.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology | Joel MunsellThe menu was long, elaborate and imposing; equalled only by the toast list, which contained no less than sixteen separate toasts.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland | Joseph TatlowIn preparation for this event Ki Pak had made careful and elaborate arrangements.
Our Little Korean Cousin | H. Lee M. Pike
British Dictionary definitions for elaborate
planned or executed with care and exactness; detailed
marked by complexity, ornateness, or detail
(intr; usually foll by on or upon) to add information or detail (to an account); expand (upon)
(tr) to work out in detail; develop
(tr) to make more complicated or ornate
(tr) to produce by careful labour; create
(tr) physiol to change (food or simple substances) into more complex substances for use in the body
Origin of elaborate
1Derived forms of elaborate
- elaborately, adverb
- elaborateness, noun
- elaboration, noun
- elaborative (ɪˈlæbərətɪv), adjective
- elaborator, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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