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.
“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
Many of the new titles aren’t exactly self-explanatory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
The former England international continued: "It's not always self-explanatory, you have to have a little bit of a delve in so you can find out what the stories mean."
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2025
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.
