self-explanatory

American

[self-ik-splan-uh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, self-] / ˈsɛlf ɪkˈsplæn əˌtɔr i, -ˌtoʊr i, ˌsɛlf- /

Also self-explaining

adjective

explaining itself; needing no explanation; obvious.

self-explanatory British

adjective

understandable without explanation; self-evident

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of self-explanatory

First recorded in 1895–1900

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.

They played well enough for Martin O'Neill so the answer is self-explanatory.

From BBC • Jan. 3, 2026

Many of the new titles aren’t exactly self-explanatory.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 11, 2025

Look at the nameplates above the lockers at the team’s spring-training facility and Rojas’ claim becomes self-explanatory.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 11, 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