explicit
Noun pluralexplicits
Often confused with implicit
Pluralexplicits
- 1Expressed in a very specific, clear, and detailed way, leaving nothing vague.
The contract included explicit terms about payment deadlines.
He was explicit about what he expected from the team.
Similarclear, express, overt, manifest
Note
Behind the everyday adjective is Latin explicitus, "disentangled, easy": an explicit statement has had its knots taken out, so nothing is left for the listener to work out. That is why its natural opposite is implicit, what is meant but left unsaid. Its closest synonyms are express and overt, which also describe how openly something is stated, as in explicit instructions or being explicit about expectations.
- 2Containing language, images, or footage so direct that some may find it offensive or graphic.
The album carries an explicit warning for its graphic lyrics.
Streaming services flag explicit content before it plays.
Similarraunchy
Oppositeclean
Note
Here the word works as a polite cover. Calling a film or song explicit says only that it is clear and direct, and it leaves unnamed the sex or strong language involved. Context separates it from the "clear and specific" meaning: explicit instructions are merely precise, but explicit content or explicit scenes are a warning. Raunchy says outright what explicit leaves tactfully unsaid, and circumspect sits at the opposite end.
- 3The final few words that bring a written text to its close.
The explicit of the codex offered a prayer for its readers.
Catalogers recorded each manuscript's explicit alongside its opening lines.
Oppositeincipit
Note
The noun's natural partner is incipit, the opening words of a text. Between them, the two mark where a text begins and where it ends. Unlike the adjective, this explicit names a piece of the text itself, so it takes an article and a plural: the explicit of a manuscript, a list of explicits. It should not be confused with the closing Latin formula, which is the word written there rather than a name for the closing words.
Less common meaning
- 4Written at the close of a book to mark that it has ended.
The monk closed the volume with Explicit, as custom required.
Beneath the colophon stood the single word Explicit.
Note
This is Latin rather than English, a shortening of explicitus est liber, "the book is set in order, ended." It stood alone as the last word of a volume and was never part of an English sentence. Because the practice is obsolete, modern writers quote it only when describing old books. It shares its spelling with the English adjective by coincidence, because the adjective came to English separately through French explicite.
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Practice
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Origins
Borrowed from French explicite, from Latin explicitus ("disentangled, easy"), a variant of explicātus.
Abbreviated from the Latin phrase explicitus est līber ("the book is set in order, ended").