Other forms: explained, explains, explaining
To explain something is to make it clear to somebody who does not get it yet. You explain the rules of a card game to a child, or explain to the inspector why your ticket is for yesterday.
The grammar catches people out: you explain something TO someone. Explain me the rules is wrong; explain the rules to me is right. Explain also means to give the reason for something — that explains the noise last night — and to account for your own behaviour, as in he was asked to explain his absence. To explain something away is to make an awkward fact sound harmless, and the phrase hints that nobody believes it. The noun is explanation and the adjective is explanatory.
1verbexplainTo make something clear enough for another person to understand it.~55%
“Could you explain the difference between the two forms to me?”
2verbreasonTo be the reason for something.~27%
“That would explain why the lights kept flickering.”
3verbgiveTo give an account of your own actions when somebody questions them.~18%
“He never explained where the money went.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 11 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Explain came through Old French explaner from Latin explanō, 'to flatten, spread out, make plain or clear'. It is ex-, 'out', on planus, 'level, plain' — the same flatness that sits in a plain and a plane. To explain is to take something crumpled and press it flat enough to read.
Latin
explanō — to flatten, spread out, make plain or clear, explain
Old French
explaner
Middle English
explanen
English, today
explain
Built from
From Middle English explanen, from Old French explaner, from Latin explanō (“to flatten, spread out, make plain or clear, explain”), from ex- (“out”) + planō (“to flatten, make level”), from planus (“level, plain”); see plain and plane. Compare esplanade, splanade. Displaced reċċan.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA