implicit
Often confused with explicit
- 1Suggested indirectly rather than expressed in so many words.
Her silence at the meeting carried an implicit criticism of the plan.
The roommates had an implicit agreement that whoever cooked would not wash the dishes.
Similarimplied, unspoken, tacit, unstated
Note
Latin implicitus, from implico, "I infold, involve, entangle", pictures a meaning folded inside the words rather than set out on their surface. An implicit message, criticism or agreement is there for the listener to unfold. The usual construction is implicit in something, as when Ronald Reagan in 1983 found individual rights implicit in the Bible's teachings.
- 2Complete and unquestioning, with no reservations or doubts; usually said of faith or trust.
The climbers placed implicit trust in their guide as the weather turned.
Recruits were expected to show implicit obedience to every order.
Similarabsolute, complete, total, unquestioning, unconditional
Note
A sense that lives almost entirely in two pairings, implicit faith and implicit trust, along with implicit obedience. The word is not normally graded, yet the 1765 Considerations on Behalf of the Colonists attacks "the most implicit faith in the dictatorial mandates of power", where the superlative stresses how total the surrender is. Here implicit means wholehearted, with nothing hinted about it.
- 3Present as part of the essential nature of something, though not openly shown.
There is a risk implicit in every investment, however safe it looks.
The tension implicit in the brothers' rivalry finally broke into the open at dinner.
Similarinherent, intrinsic, latent, underlying
Less common meaning
- 4Entangled or twisted together.
Note
The physical meaning still visible in the Latin verb for entangling, and long gone from ordinary English. It survives in older verse: in William Broome's 1725 translation of the Odyssey of Homer, the speaker says "In his deep fleece […] I cling implicit", wound into the wool. A modern reader would hear the "hinted" meaning, so write entangled or twisted together.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle French implicite, from Latin implicitus, past participle of implico ("I infold, involve, entangle"); compare implicate.