self-explanatory
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of self-explanatory
First recorded in 1895–1900
Vocabulary lists containing self-explanatory
Obvious
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Obvious
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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.
The phrase is self-explanatory, but Ms. Farr is insistent, so in her reading the woman polishes silver “until it gleamed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
“It seems like, ‘OK, that’s a pretty simple contract because it’s pretty self-explanatory where you fall in the ecosystem and the hierarchy.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2026
The titles are self-explanatory - Low Self Esteem, People Pleaser, Some Things Don’t Last Forever - reflecting the chatty openness of her lyrics.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2024
Yet the collapse in Baltimore on Tuesday might have been avoided, some of the engineers said, if the piers were adequately equipped with blocking devices with a self-explanatory name: fenders.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2024
The manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it here.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
