different between explain vs repeat

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 repeten, from Old French repeter, from Latin repet?, repetere, from the prefix re- (“again”) + peto (“attack, beseech”).

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /???pi?t/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /???pi?t/, /??i?pi?t/
• Rhymes: -i?t

Verb

repeat (third-person singular simple present repeats, present participle repeating, simple past and past participle repeated)

1. (transitive) To do or say again (and again).
2. (transitive, medicine, pharmacy) To refill (a prescription).
3. (intransitive) To happen again; recur.
4. (transitive) To echo the words of (a person).
5. (intransitive) To strike the hours, as a watch does.
6. (obsolete) To make trial of again; to undergo or encounter again.
   • a. 1687, Edmund Waller, The Battel of the Summer Islands

     He […] repeats the danger of the burning town.

7. (law, Scotland) To repay or refund (an excess received).
8. (procedure word, military) To call in a previous artillery fire mission with the same ammunition and method either on the coordinates or adjusted either because destruction of the target was insufficient or missed.

9. To commit fraud in an election by voting more than once for the same candidate.

Synonyms

• (to do or say again): redo, reiterate, reprise, rework see also Thesaurus:reiterate
• (to happen again): reoccur; see also Thesaurus:repeat

Related terms

• repeatedly
• repeat on
• repeat oneself
• repetition
• repetitive

Translations

Noun

repeat (plural repeats)

1. An iteration; a repetition.

2. A television program shown after its initial presentation; a rerun.
3. (medicine, pharmacy) A refill of a prescription.
4. (genetics, biochemistry) A pattern of nucleic acids that occur in multiple copies throughout a genome (or of amino acids in a protein).
5. (music) A mark in music notation directing a part to be repeated.

Synonyms

• (iteration; repetition): reiteration, reoccurrence; see also Thesaurus:reoccurrence

Derived terms

• decarepeat
• homorepeat

Translations

See also

• redundant

Anagrams

• Partee, Perate, retape