Synonyms for elucidate
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Verb
1. Explain — to make (something) clear and understandable; to clarify, to illuminate, to shed light on
explain, explicate, interpret, illustrate, expound formal, solve, account for, unfold, absolve, explicitate, decipher, unravel
2. Illuminate
illuminate, enlighten, clear up, crystallize, crystalize US, crystallise UK, sort out, straighten out, cast light on, crystalise
Definitions
- v. 1
To make (something) clear and understandable; to clarify, to illuminate, to shed light on.
Related words
- Word family
- elucidation elucidative elucidator
- Other spellings
- illucidate
Forms
- Past participle
- elucidated
e.g. elucidated → explained, explicated, interpreted, illustrated…
Example sentences
- explain Explain to him the difficult situation you are in.
- interpret Translators are responsible people who interpret.
- illustrate Can you illustrate that using a concrete example?
- explicate It took the length of a novella to fully explicate the theory in Toki Pona.
- illuminate The sun started to come out and illuminate the sky.
- enlighten The ray of wisdom must enlighten new horizons.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| elucidate | steady | |
| explain | rising | |
| interpret | rising | |
| illustrate | steady | |
| explicate | rising | |
| illuminate | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 5 letters
- solve1
- 6 letters
- unfold2
- 7 letters
- explain2, clarify3, unravel3, absolve2, expound2
- 8 letters
- simplify3, decipher3
- 9 letters
- interpret3, enlighten3, explicate3
- 10 letters
- illustrate3, illuminate4, crystalize, crystalise
- 11 letters
- crystallize3, crystallise, explicitate
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (unfold2 = 2 syllables).