shed light on

1. Also, throw light on. Clarify or explain, as in I was hoping the professor would shed light on how he arrived at his theory, or Can anyone throw some light on where these plants came from? Originally, from about 1200, these expressions were used literally, in the sense of “illuminate,” but they soon were used figuratively as well.

Example Sentences

Great writing, even when an author sets a story in early 20th century Maine or during ancient uprisings, often sheds light on our own era.

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It also sheds light on similar processes occurring around other magnetized worlds, including Jupiter and Saturn, expanding our grasp of how planetary environments evolve across the solar system.

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This sheds light on the current market, Martin added, because the Nasdaq’s weekly A/D line hit a 1½ year high on Oct.

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But most importantly, the Thursday earnings call will shed light on the performance of Amazon’s cloud-computing business.

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This interdisciplinary effort aims to shed light on climate and environmental evolution in the Upper Rhine Graben and southwestern Germany over the past 400,000 years.

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Related Words

• analyze 
• clear up 
• define 
• formulate 
• interpret 
• resolve 
• simplify 
• spell out