elaboration

[ih-lab-uh-rey-shuh n]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR elaboration ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an act or instance of elaborating.

the state of being elaborated; elaborateness.

something that is elaborated.

Psychiatry. an unconscious process of expanding and embellishing a detail, especially while recalling and describing a representation in a dream so that latent content of the dream is brought into a logical and comprehensible order.

Origin of elaboration

1570–80; < Latin ēlabōrātiōn- (stem of ēlabōrātiō), equivalent to ēlabōrāt- (see elaborate) + -iōn- -ion

Related formsself-e·lab·o·ra·tion, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for elaboration

amplification, comment, discussion, explanation

Examples from the Web for elaboration

Contemporary Examples of elaboration

Lack of elaboration is a virus that continually infects the book, sometimes having a sickening effect on the reader.
Cornel West’s Disappointing Decline
David Masciotra
October 23, 2014
It is neither the time nor the place to ask for elaboration.
The Stacks: The Eyes of Winter: Paul Newman at 70
Peter Richmond
October 11, 2014

Historical Examples of elaboration

The craving for excitement and for elaboration has ruined that blessing.
Howards End
E. M. Forster
He defined the nature and crime of treason with elaboration and circumlocution.
The Shadow of a Crime
Hall Caine
It was an elaboration of the theories contained in his earlier book.
Socialism
John Spargo
The system represents a series of compromises, not the elaboration of a theory.
The English Utilitarians, Volume I.
Leslie Stephen
A youth of this kind is raw material in its first stage of elaboration.
Elsie Venner
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Word Origin and History for elaboration

1570s, in a physiological sense relating to tissue development, from Late Latin elaborationem (nominative elaboratio), noun of action from past participle stem of elaborare "work out, produce by labor," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + laborare "to labor" (see labor (v.)).

elaboration in Medicine

elaboration

[ĭ-lăb′ə-rā′shən]

n.

The process of working out in detail by labor and study.

The mental process occurring partly during dreaming and partly during the recalling or telling of a dream, by means of which the latent content of the dream is brought into increasingly more coherent and logical order, resulting in the manifest content of the dream.

Related formse•lab′o•rate′ v.