Entry Word: elaboration

Function: noun

Meaning: 1 the act or process of going from the simple or basic to the complex or advanced <the elaboration of the Internet from an exclusive computer network into a worldwide communications network of colossal proportions> — see development 1
2 the representation of something in terms that go beyond the facts <the eyewitness was deemed unreliable because of his obvious elaboration of what he had actually seen> — see exaggeration