Explicit means spelled out in full, with nothing left for you to guess. An explicit instruction tells you exactly what to do and in what order; an explicit agreement puts every term in writing where both sides can see it.
Its partner is implicit, which means understood but never actually said. You can be explicit ABOUT something — 'he was explicit about the deadline' — or make something explicit, which is putting into words what everyone had merely assumed. The adverb explicitly does heavy work in an argument: 'she explicitly denied it.' One warning worth having: explicit has a second life on labels and streaming services, where explicit content means sex, violence or swearing. So 'an explicit description' can land either way, and the rest of the sentence decides which.
1adjectiveexplicitStated fully and directly, with nothing left implied.
“The contract is explicit about who pays for repairs.”
synonyms: unambiguous, definite
2adjectiveshowingShowing or describing sex or violence openly and in detail.
“The film carries a warning for explicit language.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: clear
Explicit came through French explicite from Latin explicitus, 'disentangled, easy', a variant of explicātus. That is the picture to hold on to: a knot pulled apart, a thing untangled until it is easy to follow. An explicit rule is one with no snarls left in it.
Proto-Indo-European
*pleḱ-
Latin
explicitus — disentangled, easy
French
explicite
English, today
explicit
French explicite, from Latin explicitus (“disentangled, easy”), variant of explicātus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA