elaborate

UK/ɪˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/US/ɪˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/

adjectiveB23 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,778 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: elaborated, elaborates, elaborating

Elaborate means worked out in far more detail than the job required. An elaborate excuse with three names and a bus timetable in it. An elaborate cake. An elaborate plan involving two cars, a boat and a man called Terry.

It is a verb as well, and the two are said differently — the adjective ends flat, ee-LAB-uh-rut, and the verb ends long, ee-LAB-uh-rate. To elaborate is to say more about something you have already said, which is what a teacher wants when your answer is four words long, and it takes on: elaborate on a point, elaborate on the plan. As an adjective it goes with things people build or invent — an elaborate system, an elaborate hoax, elaborate carvings. Do not reach for it just because something is large or expensive: elaborate is about the number of parts and the care poured into each one, and it hints that the effort went a little further than it needed to.

Definitions of elaborate

1adjectiveadjMade of many small parts, each one carefully worked out.B2~76%
“He had an elaborate excuse ready before anyone asked.”
synonyms: intricate, detailed, ornate
2verbspeechTo say more about something you have already said.B2~20%
“She refused to elaborate on the rumour.”
synonyms: expand, go into detail
3verbelaborateTo work something out fully, in all its detail.B2~4%
“The committee elaborated a plan over six months.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 180 sentences found in the wild and placed 180 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Remember it

e-LABOR-ate → E + LABOUR, worked all the way out

A wedding cake as high as the table, four hundred sugar roses on it, every one rolled by hand. Two women have laboured over that cake for six days. The guests eat it in ten minutes.

hooks ontolabour

Also practised as

Where it comes from

Latin ēlabōrāre was ē-, meaning out, forth, fully, plus labor — work, toil, exertion. To elaborate a thing was to labour it all the way out to the end. English borrowed the past participle in 1575, ēlabōrātus, worked out, and that is still exactly what an elaborate excuse is.

Latin
ēlabōrātus — worked out
English, today
elaborate

Built from

ēlabōrō · Latin — to work out
ē- · Latin — out, forth, fully
labor · Latin — work, toil, exertion

1575, from Latin ēlabōrātus (“worked out”), past participle of ēlabōrō (“to work out”), from ē- (“out, forth, fully”) + labor (“work, toil, exertion”). More at e-, labour.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Academic English, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

elaborate in the wild

There are countless cake recipes; some are bread-like, some are rich and elaborate, and many are centuries old.
Cake
A frieze can be found on many Greek and Roman buildings, the Parthenon Frieze being the most famous, and perhaps the most elaborate.
Frieze
The word originally referred to the elaborate formal dress and accessories of a sovereign, but now it also refers to any type of elaborate formal dress.
Regalia
The dish is a form of jeongol (elaborate chowder-like stew).
Sinseollo
In the 1970s, a more elaborate program emerged.
Dental public health

1 / 5

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

the labor family

elaborate avalanche labour

elaborate — used about once every 696 pages · #3,778 · point at the bar for the others

elaboration

Definitions of elaborate

1adjectiveadjMade of many small parts, each one carefully worked out.B2~76%

“He had an elaborate excuse ready before anyone asked.”

synonyms: intricate, detailed, ornate

2verbspeechTo say more about something you have already said.B2~20%

“She refused to elaborate on the rumour.”

synonyms: expand, go into detail

3verbelaborateTo work something out fully, in all its detail.B2~4%

“The committee elaborated a plan over six months.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 180 sentences found in the wild and placed 180 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.