To make plain or flat; spread out in a flattened form; unfold.
To make plain or clear to the mind; render intelligible; unfold, analyze, state, or describe in such a manner as to make evident to the minds of others; exhibit the nature, meaning, or significance of; interpret; elucidate; expound.
To exhibit, disclose, or state the grounds or causes of the existence or occurrence of; reveal or state the causal or logical antecedents or conditions of; account for.
Synonyms Explain, Expound, Interpret, Elucidate. Explain is the most general of these words, and means to make plain, clear, and intelligible. Expound is used of elaborate, formal, or methodical explanation: as, to expound a text, the law, the philosophy of Aristotle. To interpret is to explain, as if from a foreign language, to make clear what before was dark, and generally by following the original closely, as word by word and line by line: as, to interpret Hegel, Swedenborg, Emerson. To elucidate is to bring or work out into the light that which before was dark, usually by means of illustration; the word generally implies, like expound, a somewhat protracted or elaborate process. See translate.
To give explanations.