revealing
Britishadjective
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of significance or import
a very revealing experience
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showing or designed to show more of the body than is usual or conventional
a revealing costume
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Use the adjective revealing to describe disclosing something that was hidden, either literally or figuratively. If you ask people if they've ever cheated on a test, you may get revealing answers that tell you whether the person is honest or not. Revealing comes from the Latin word revelare, which literally means "unveil," and that word has its roots in re-, meaning "the opposite of," and velare meaning "to cover or veil." It is little wonder that the adjective revealing is often used to describe clothing that leaves little to the imagination. If your daughter's date comes to the door in a revealing shirt with almost every button undone, you might ask him to put on a jacket or else he'll be sure to catch cold.
Vocabulary lists containing revealing
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
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"The Dead and the Gone" Susan Beth Pfeffer, Chapters 11–14
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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.
At the end of his life, 81-year-old Wilbur boards a supernatural train that takes him to critical moments in his past, revealing how often he chose work over relationships.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 25, 2026
That line is revealing because Trump no longer talks about security as background logistics.
From Salon • May 24, 2026
An international team of researchers has directly observed how angular momentum moves through a crystal lattice for the first time, revealing an unexpected quantum effect that causes the direction of rotation to reverse.
From Science Daily • May 24, 2026
Yet, studying the “primest of prime-age workers,” or those in the middle ages of this cohort, is even more revealing, Rinz found.
From Barron's • May 22, 2026
I turned it on its side, revealing two clasps, like hinges.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
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.
