explication
Americannoun
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explications
plural
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the act of explicating.
-
an explanation; interpretation.
He gave a brilliant explication of James Joyce's book.
noun
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the act or process of explicating
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analysis or interpretation, esp of a literary passage or work or philosophical doctrine
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a comprehensive exposition or description
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of explication
1520–30; < Middle French < Latin explicātiōn- (stem of explicātiō ). See explicate, -ion
Explanation
Explication is the process of making something clearer. When you carefully explain your performance art piece to your mystified parents, you can describe what you're doing as an explication. The noun explication is closely related to "explicit," which essentially means "crystal clear." Both words come from the Latin explicitus, "unobstructed," which itself is a variant of explicare, "unfold or unravel." A good explication unravels any doubt or confusion and results in a crystal clear understanding, whether the explication involves performance art, the plot of a novel, or the complicated route to your grandmother's house.
Vocabulary lists containing explication
Challenge, List 9
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The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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Love's Labour's Lost
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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:
Mr. Richardson’s explication of these sui generis novels is astute and highly welcome.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
If this, one of the best and truest Ojai festivals in recent years, is meant not for explication but discovery, please do so.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2025
Estados Unidos Mexicanos thwart case-by-case determination of PLCAA’s applicability, a process that promotes careful explication of the law.
From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2025
She followed that with a second surprise song similarly awash in explication: "Lana Del Rey put out a new album today," she said.
From Salon ● Oct. 13, 2023
The study of philosophy was thus seen as a preparation for the study of theology because both disciplines were concerned with the explication of authoritative texts.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
An economics novice, I have relied on his unbiased, splendidly presented explications of this complicated realm since I came to D.C. in 1978.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 25, 2020
Unnecessary words take up space at the expense of apt explications.
From Nature ● Jun. 11, 2019
You didn’t need so many explications through scene-making.
From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2016
With the modern history of hoarding, we are now getting the modern, or actually postmodern, explications.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 8, 2014
But as this work was intended as a manual to be consulted at any time, he was compelled to curb this propensity, and to reduce his explications to a few concise sentences.
From Bibliomania in the Middle Ages by Frederick Somner Merryweather
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
