different between explain vs bellow

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)

1. To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
2. To give a valid excuse for past behavior.
3. (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
4. (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.

5. (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

English

Alternative forms

• (US, dialectal) beller

Etymology

From Middle English belwen, from Old English bylgian, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European *b?el- (“to sound, roar”), whence also belg (“leather bag”), bellan (“to roar”), bl?wan (“to blow”). Cognate with German bellen (“to bark”), Russian ??????? (bléjat?, “baa, bleat”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?lo?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?l??/
• Rhymes: -?l??

Noun

bellow (plural bellows)

1. The deep roar of a large animal, or any similar loud noise.

Translations

Verb

bellow (third-person singular simple present bellows, present participle bellowing, simple past and past participle bellowed)

1. To make a loud, deep, hollow noise like the roar of an angry bull.

   • the bellowing voice of boiling seas

2. To shout in a deep voice.

Translations