implicit
adjective
Kevin Phillips
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Implicit With a Preposition
Implicit is often followed by a preposition, and that preposition is usually in:
"American Horror Story" is a pretty grisly show. No one should be too surprised by that revelation — it’s sort of the promise implicit in its name, after all.
—Lacy Baugher, The Baltimore Sun, 3 Nov. 2016
On less frequent occasions, implicit may be followed by from, with, or within:
[S]uch a ruling seemed implicit from Fullam’s comments.
—Sean O’Sullivan, The News Journal (Wilmington, DE), 4 October 2006Implicit with the discovery of oil was the hard truth that it wasn't going to last forever.
—Warren Jones et al., Alaska Dispatch News, 1 June 2016Russia's president was explicit, calling on the West to pressure Kiev to deliver results. Implicit within that was a threat: that Moscow will not play along with the talks forever.
—Sarah Rainsford, BBC News, 14 Aug. 2016The black dead ocean looked like a mirror of the night; it was cold, implicit with dread and death…
—Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead, 1948
Synonyms
Examples of implicit in a Sentence
Henry Steele Commager, Atlantic, March 1982
… in the best stories the end is implicit from the beginning.
—Joan Aiken, The Writer, May 1968
The goodness and strength implicit within Pen unfold but slowly.
—John DeBruyn, LIT, Spring 1966
The movies borrowed from other arts on the way to finding methods implicit in their medium.
—Bernard DeVoto, The World of Fiction, 1950
There is a sense of moral duty implicit in her writings.
I have implicit trust in her honesty.
Marc Caputo, Axios, 7 Feb. 2025
Foster isn’t immune to the appeal of an impeccable modernist box, but he has always been drawn to stories of engineering innovation that make an implicit claim about the possibility of progress.
—Ian Parker, The New Yorker, 20 Jan. 2025
Biden’s Justice Department wrote in recent court filings for Jan. 6 defendants — many of whom are expecting imminent pardons from Trump — that accepting a pardon comes with an implicit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, despite Biden’s insistence that these do not.
—Ella Lee, The Hill, 20 Jan. 2025
Donald Trump’s implicit threat to use military force will hopefully put an end to the Iran-Hamas led hostage crisis.
—Doug Friednash, The Denver Post, 15 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for implicit 
Dictionary Entries Near implicit
Cite this Entry
“Implicit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implicit. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
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