explanation
Americannoun
-
explanations
plural
-
the act or process of explaining.
- Synonyms:
- description, interpretation, exposition, explication, elucidation
-
something that explains; a statement made to clarify something and make it understandable; exposition.
an explanation of a poem.
-
a meaning or interpretation.
to find an explanation for a mystery.
-
a mutual declaration of the meaning of words spoken, actions, motives, etc., with a view to adjusting a misunderstanding or reconciling differences.
After a long and emotional explanation they were friends again.
noun
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the act or process of explaining
-
a statement or occurrence that explains
-
a clarification of disputed terms or points; reconciliation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of explanation
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English explanacioun, from Latin explānātiōn-, stem of explānātiō, from explānāt(us) “made understandable” (past participle of explānāre “to smooth out, make understandable”) + -iō -ion; see explain
Explanation
An explanation is a statement about how or why something is the way it is. If you're failing math, you'd better come up with a good explanation to give to your parents. Explanation is from the same Latin word as explain: explanare, which means make clear. Because explanation and explain are so closely related, people often try to shoehorn an extra i into the spelling of explanation. Don't. You might think that explanation has the odd spelling, but it is really the more regular of the two because there is no i in explanare.
Vocabulary lists containing explanation
The Language of Standardized Tests, List 1
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PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
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The SAT: Language of the Test, List 4
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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:
Aggregate figures cannot isolate Maia’s contribution, so management’s explanation of infrastructure costs and product mix will matter.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
But Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, who was not involved in the research, told BBC News that an attack by a rival was the more plausible explanation.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
If older people did something at the same age and no longer do, the explanation is age.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
One possible explanation involves the body's circadian rhythms, the internal biological processes that help regulate sleep, metabolism, and other functions throughout the approximately 24-hour daily cycle.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026
What the fox showed him proved to be the reasonable explanation to the voices that C.C. assured him there would be, but nonetheless, to Duane, the illusion the fox created seemed magical.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
There are a few explanations for how a seemingly can’t-miss prospect ended up so far from the mark.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
The TSE requested explanations from the company, which cited "technical problems" worldwide.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
The results allowed them to rule out explanations involving strain, material degradation, inhomogeneity, and metallic screening effects.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026
They have not not offered any explanations about what went wrong.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
Variation and natural selection offer cogent explanations of the mechanism by which evolution might occur within a species, but they do not explain the formation of species per se.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
