explanation
Pluralexplanations
- 1A statement, fact, or idea that makes something clear or understandable.
Like a key that unlocks a confusing idea so the meaning falls into place.
The teacher offered an explanation that finally made the concept click.
Several explanations for the strange noise turned out to be wrong.
Similarreason, account, interpretation, answer
Note
Here the word names the account rather than the act, and it typically takes for: an explanation for the sightings. Accounts can be weighed against one another. F. A. Hayek in 1949 judged one to be far from 'the necessary or even the most likely explanation,' and the word pairs readily with such weighing adjectives. Unlike the act of explaining, an explanation in this sense can simply be wrong.
- 2The act or process of making something clear to someone.
Her patient explanation helped the new staff learn the booking system.
The manual skips any explanation of the setup steps entirely.
Similarclarification, description, elucidation
Note
This sense names the doing itself. The word is built from explain plus -ation, after Latin explanatio, 'interpretation', and it displaced the native Old English racu. It works in two ways. Uncountable, it means the activity in general (without explanation, in need of explanation). Countable, it means one particular act, as in an explanation that was long and drawn-out.
- 3A settling of disputed points through discussion, a mutual clearing up that brings people back to agreement.
Like a peace talk that turns a standoff back into a friendship.
The two families sought an explanation to end years of bitter misunderstanding.
A frank explanation between the partners restored the trust they had lost.
Similarreconciliation, understanding
Note
Jane Austen uses this sense in Emma (1815): 'This little explanation with Mr. Knightley gave Emma considerable pleasure.' The giveaway is the preposition. An explanation with someone is a talk that clears up a quarrel between two people. An explanation to someone, closer to the account that makes things clear, only informs. Read with as the sign that reconciliation, not information, is meant.
Practice
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Origin
From Latin explanatio ("an explanation, interpretation"), from explanare ("explain"). It can be seen as explain plus the suffix -ation, and it displaced the native Old English word racu.