elucidate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Usage
What are other ways to say elucidate?
To elucidate something is to throw light upon it or make it clear. How does elucidate compare to synonyms explain, expound, and interpret? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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elucidationnoun
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elucidatornoun
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elucidativeadjective
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nonelucidatingadjective
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nonelucidativeadjective
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unelucidatedadjective
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unelucidatingadjective
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unelucidativeadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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elucidatesimple
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elucidatessimple
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have elucidatedperfect
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has elucidatedperfect
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am elucidatingprogressive
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are elucidatingprogressive
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is elucidatingprogressive
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have been elucidatingperfect progressive
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has been elucidatingperfect progressive
Past
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elucidatedsimple
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had elucidatedperfect
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was elucidatingprogressive
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were elucidatingprogressive
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had been elucidatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of elucidate
First recorded in 1560–70; from Late Latin ēlūcidātus “enlightened” (past participle of ēlūcidāre ), equivalent to ē- intensive prefix + lūcid(us) “bright, shining, clear, clear to the understanding” + -ātus adjective suffix; see origin at e- 1, lucid, -ate 1
Explanation
If you elucidate something, you explain it very clearly. If you don't understand fractions, a visit to the pie shop may elucidate the subject for you. Elucidate, meaning "to make clear," is from the Late Latin elucidare, from the Latin prefix e-, "thoroughly," and lucidus, "clear, bright." See the word lucid in elucidate? That's an adjective which describes someone who thinks clearly or something that is clear enough to understand.
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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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
Delving deeper, the researchers conducted structural simulations and molecular docking studies to elucidate whether the vitamin K homolog interacts with mGluR1.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2025
It was a sweeping sweep of a sweep, the Dodgers winning their third consecutive game from the Padres Sunday by a 5-4 margin that does not begin to elucidate the difference between these two teams.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2025
Gene replication must explain how a multicellular organism emerges from a single cell—and errors in replication might elucidate how a spontaneous metabolic illness, or a devastating mental disease, might arise in a previously unaffected family.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
In a collection of his reviews, “Big Screen, Little Screen,” I was struck by the way he elucidates the alchemy of Page’s acting.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
“Beauty of the Beasts” elucidates their true role in nature.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
This work, published in the journal Cell, elucidates the complexities of centriole assembly.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 10, 2024
She elucidates the myths and stories we tell about our lupine fears in ferocious and beautiful writing.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2023
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself elucidates this truth in one of His Tablets: “In cycles gone by, though harmony was established, yet, owing to the absence of means, the unity of all mankind could not have been achieved.
From The Promised Day Is Come by Shoghi Effendi
“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
With the activation mechanism fully elucidated, the researchers were able to reverse engineer an antidote that quickly restores clotting.
From Science Daily ● May 13, 2024
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 style of teaching was Socratic in nature; ideas and theories were elucidated through the leaders asking and answering questions.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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
McPherson takes liberties, setting the play in 1900 central Ukraine and, perhaps more consequently, elucidating the psychology where Chekhov was a tad more ambiguous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 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
"MR-SPI is particularly valuable for elucidating causal relationships in complex diseases like Alzheimer's, where traditional approaches struggle," Liu explained.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 4, 2024
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
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.
