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demystify

UK/diːˈmɪstɪfaɪ/
verbC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,380 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: demystifying, demystified, demystifies

To demystify is to strip the mystery from a subject and make it plain. Demystify the process, demystifying the law, demystify the jargon.

It assumes the mystery was unnecessary in the first place, which is usually a fair assumption about professional language. It is what every good explanation does.

Definitions of demystify

  1. 1verbdemystifyTo strip the mystery from a subject and make it plain.C2

    “The website aims to demystify tax returns for people filling one in for the first time.”

demystify is a clarifying.

Where it comes from

French demystifier is de-, undoing, plus mystifier, to mystify.

  1. French

    démystifier

  2. English, today

    demystify

From French démystifier, or de + mystify.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

demystify in the wild

  • The aim of the poems is to demystify rural and small town American life.

    Spoon River Anthology

  • The company aimed to demystify theatre by presenting contemporary classics in informal spaces, mainly pubs.

    Maverick Theatre Company

  • The book was written to demystify North Korean society.

    Comrades and Strangers

  • The book tries to demystify the figure of Columbus and the Spanish missionaries who followed him.

    500 años fregados pero cristianos

  • According to Swedish historian Gunnar Broberg, it was to offer a natural explanation and demystify the world of superstition.

    Animalia Paradoxa

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • mystify