elucidate
verb
Did you know?
In 1974, the discovery of a remarkably intact Australopithecus skeleton elucidated a key moment in human evolution. She was famously nicknamed Lucy in reference to the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” but we’d still love Lucy were it simply an homage to the light she shed. You see, the Latin luc- or lux puts the “light” in many English utterances (including the name Lucy). Take, for instance, lucent (“glowing with light”), luculent (“clear in thought or expression”), luciferous (“bringing light or insight”), lucid (“clear, sane, intelligible”), and elucidate (“to make clear or understandable”). Those last two words come from the Latin lucidus, which literally translates to “lucid.” Lucidus, in turn, comes from the verb lucēre, meaning “to shine.” Elucidating, therefore, can be thought of as the figurative equivalent of shining a light on something to make it easier to see.
Examples of elucidate in a Sentence
Andrew S. Lim, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025
Nathan’s identity — as a comic, as a performer, as a Jewish person — all help to elucidate the broader flaws of sorting people into neat little boxes rather than respecting their capacity to be more than one thing.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 15 Apr. 2025
McPherson takes liberties, setting the play in 1900 central Ukraine and, perhaps more consequently, elucidating the psychology where Chekhov was a tad more ambiguous.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2025
It’s not designed to explain or elucidate its massive collection of characters and concepts; it’s designed to flex on having them all at its disposal.
—Sean T. Collins, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for elucidate
Cite this Entry
“Elucidate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elucidate. Accessed 20 May. 2025.
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elucidate
verb
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