different between explain vs characterise
explain
English
Etymology
From Middle English explanen, from Old French explaner, from Latin explan? (“I flatten, spread out, make plain or clear, explain”), from ex- (“out”) + plan? (“I flatten, make level”), from planus (“level, plain”); see plain and plane. Compare esplanade, splanade. Displaced Old English ?ere??an.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?k?sple?n/, /?k?sple?n/
- Rhymes: -e?n
Verb
explain (third-person singular simple present explains, present participle explaining, simple past and past participle explained)
- To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
- To give a valid excuse for past behavior.
- (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
- (obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
- April 14, 1684, John Evelyn, a letter sent to the Royal Society concerning the damage done to his gardens by the preceding winter
- The horse-chestnut is […] ready to explain its leaf.
- April 14, 1684, John Evelyn, a letter sent to the Royal Society concerning the damage done to his gardens by the preceding winter
- (intransitive) To make something plain or intelligible.
Synonyms
- (give a sufficiently detailed report): expound, elaborate, recce
Derived terms
- afore-explained
- explain away
- explainer
- mansplain
- please explain
- -splain
Related terms
- explanation
- explanatory
Translations
Further reading
- explain in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- explain in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- explain at OneLook Dictionary Search
explain From the web:
- what explains the shape of a demand curve
- what explains why the constitution was written
- what explains why the renaissance began in italy
- what explains how the particles in gases behave
- what explains the similarities in the pacific cultures
- what explains the existence of analogous structures
- what is the shape of demand curve
characterise
English
Etymology
character +? -ise
Verb
characterise (third-person singular simple present characterises, present participle characterising, simple past and past participle characterised)
- Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of characterize.
Anagrams
- characteries
characterise From the web:
- what characterizes static stretching
- what characterizes tempera paintings
- what characterized the actions of the first triumvirate
- what characterizes a partisan speech
- what characterizes developing economies
- what characterizes a republic as a form of government
- what characterizes healthy body composition
- what characterized roman architecture
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