explain

explain is one of the 1000 most common headwords.

explain

[change] Verb

Plain form
explain

Third-person singular
explains

Past tense
explained

Past participle
explained

Present participle
explaining

(transitive & intransitive) If you explain something, you talk about it so that somebody can understand it.

At the police station we explained the situation to a policeman.

Can you explain the difference in cost between the two?

I can be hard to explain to children why you shouldn't use some words.

He explained that Chinese verbs don't change for tense.

I explained that we didn't have any money so we couldn't pay.
(transitive) If $x$ explains $y$ , knowing $x$ will help you understand $y$ .

Their problems were only partially explained by what they ate.