1
as in clarifying
to make plain or understandable
a pamphlet that explains the medical procedure in language that any layperson can understand
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in justifying
to give the reason for or cause of
can you explain your very odd behavior at the wedding reception?
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of explaining
Police took Taddese’s phone and vehicle as evidence, which alarmed the family, Bernard said, explaining some of the family’s reservations about the police investigation.
—
Pj Green, Kansas City Star, 12 Sep. 2025
About The Daily Money Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer and financial news from USA TODAY, breaking down complex events, providing the TLDR version, and explaining how everything from Fed rate changes to bankruptcies impacts you.
—Betty Lin-Fisher, USA Today, 12 Sep. 2025
Are there detailed tutorials explaining the basic controls and deeper strategies?
—ArsTechnica, 11 Sep. 2025
The task of explaining to customers how their data is being used also tends to fall on the marketing department.
—Tom Barkley, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025
On Thursday, Adam Schefter relayed a message from NFL official Brian McCarthy explaining that the league will not be disciplining Jackson in any way for shoving the fan.
—Reice Shipley, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Sep. 2025
Stephen Colbert began Wednesday night's Late Show by explaining a change to the opening.
—Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2025
The film opens just as its predecessor ended, with a handy recap explaining how Ne Zha and his angelic counterpart, Ao Bing, ended up in need of bodily reincarnation.
—Derek Robertson, The Washington Examiner, 5 Sep. 2025
Amorim has been clearer and more consistent in explaining his tactical ideas and vision for the future.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2025
Pj Green, Kansas City Star, 12 Sep. 2025
About The Daily Money Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer and financial news from USA TODAY, breaking down complex events, providing the TLDR version, and explaining how everything from Fed rate changes to bankruptcies impacts you.
—Betty Lin-Fisher, USA Today, 12 Sep. 2025
Are there detailed tutorials explaining the basic controls and deeper strategies?
—ArsTechnica, 11 Sep. 2025
The task of explaining to customers how their data is being used also tends to fall on the marketing department.
—Tom Barkley, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025
On Thursday, Adam Schefter relayed a message from NFL official Brian McCarthy explaining that the league will not be disciplining Jackson in any way for shoving the fan.
—Reice Shipley, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Sep. 2025
Stephen Colbert began Wednesday night's Late Show by explaining a change to the opening.
—Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2025
The film opens just as its predecessor ended, with a handy recap explaining how Ne Zha and his angelic counterpart, Ao Bing, ended up in need of bodily reincarnation.
—Derek Robertson, The Washington Examiner, 5 Sep. 2025
Amorim has been clearer and more consistent in explaining his tactical ideas and vision for the future.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for explaining
Verb
-
Musk directly condemned the posts that appeared to celebrate Kirk’s shooting, in one case clarifying a false claim that a Tesla employee had made one such mocking comment.—
Ashley Lutz,
Fortune,
12 Sep. 2025
-
Ask clarifying questions and offer feedback that demonstrates the other person was heard and understood.—
Christopher Kaufman,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The Pentagon hasn't released information publicly justifying the destruction of the boat.—
Bart Jansen,
USA Today,
7 Sep. 2025
-
Bob felt that Clark Gilmer was 'justifying the harm' done to trans people in her comments about King.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
1 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Far more than an after-party, the evening served as a cultural marker, illustrating how Black talent is not just participating in NYFW but actively shaping its future across fashion, beauty, and media.—
Corein Carter,
Forbes.com,
13 Sep. 2025
-
While the details of the case are particular to one individual, experts say the outcome is far too common, illustrating the need for greater vigilance of, and advocacy around, a threat that kills a person every six minutes, according to the National Blood Clot Alliance.—
Paul Sisson,
Mercury News,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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With this setup, and with two stars who have done well playing characters on their respective Houses with a great capacity for rationalizing their cruelty to others, The Girlfriend could easily get away with going back and forth on the blame game for most of its six-hour length.—
Alan Sepinwall,
Rolling Stone,
8 Sep. 2025
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This entails the messy but necessary work of (finally) consolidating and rationalizing your tech portfolio to weed out duplicative or unneeded systems and applications.—
Forrester,
Forbes.com,
20 Aug. 2025
Verb
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At Level 2, this means demonstrating compliance with all 110 controls in NIST 800-171.—
Emil Sayegh,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
-
While his specialty is agateware, which involves carving into a multi-colored piece to reveal layers of clay, this musician and songwriter also enjoys the showmanship of demonstrating his craft.—
Jennifer Prince,
Southern Living,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The time to prepare for AI agents is now, and CISOs can start by establishing AI observability capable of tracking, auditing and attributing agentic behaviors across environments.—
Josh Lemos,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
-
Kentucky reported at least 1,223 work zone crashes in 2024, with officials attributing seven deaths and 298 injuries to those crashes.—
Leo Bertucci,
Louisville Courier Journal,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
There has been some progress in simplifying regulations.—
Tasmin Lockwood,
Fortune,
9 Sep. 2025
-
Leverage Passwordless Tools And Automated Credential Rotation Empowering employees starts with simplifying secure access.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Think of it as a hospital’s central nervous system for information — continuously gathering signals, interpreting them, and routing critical insights where they are needed most.—
Matthew Kayser,
USA Today,
12 Sep. 2025
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Managing and interpreting the flood of data would be impossible without machine intelligence.—
Bernard Marr,
Forbes.com,
12 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Explaining.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/explaining. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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