different between explain vs impart

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

From Middle English imparten, borrowed from Middle French impartir, empartir, from Late Latin imparti?, imperti?, from im- (“in”) + Latin parti? (“divide”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?p??t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?p???t/
• Rhymes: -??(r)t

Verb

impart (third-person singular simple present imparts, present participle imparting, simple past and past participle imparted)

1. (transitive) To give or bestow (e.g. a quality or property).

2. (transitive) To give a part or to share.

   Synonyms: bequeath, bestow, give; see also Thesaurus:give

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VIII, line 440

     Expressing well the spirit within thee [Adam] free, / My [God's] image, not imparted to the brute.
3. (transitive) To make known; to show (by speech, writing etc.).

   Synonyms: disclose, tell; see also Thesaurus:announce, Thesaurus:inform

   • 1662, John Dryden, letter to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

     Well may he then to you his cares impart.
4. (intransitive) To hold a conference or consultation.
5. (transitive) To obtain a share of; to partake of.
   • c. 1587 Anthony Munday, John a Kent and John a Cumber

     Sweet Cossen, what we may not now impart, heere let vs bury it, closely in our hart

Translations

References

• impart at OneLook Dictionary Search
• impart in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Primat, arm pit, armpit