different between explain vs explication

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

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French explication, from Latin explicatio, explicationem.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

explication (countable and uncountable, plural explications)

1. The act of opening or unfolding.
2. (dated or formal) The act of explaining; an explanation.
3. The sense given by an expositor.

Related terms

• explicate
• explicator
• explicit

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin explicatio, explicationem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k.spli.ka.sj??/

Noun

explication f (plural explications)

1. explanation

Related terms

• expliquer

Further reading

• “explication” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).