explainer

noun

ex·​plain·​er ik-ˈsplā-nər 

plural explainers

: a person or thing that explains something: such as

a

: a person who makes something understandable

Modern day presidents must be good explainers of a complex world …

—Jonathan Alter et al.

b

: an article, podcast, graphic, etc., that explains something complex or not widely understood : an in-depth treatment of a topic

… a whizzy economics explainer titled "Ways & Means" …

—Sana Krasikov

Each half-hour episode contained a big explainer of a complicated issue. The list of topics sounds like the arcane scraps from the cutting-room floor of most newsrooms—the amount of hidden sugar in food, civil forfeiture, the false hopes of lotteries, the failure of the American government to safeguard people who served as interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

—David Carr

Inside, the issue contains a long explainer piece on how the subprime mess came to be and how it wreaked havoc on Citi, Wall Street and especially Merrill.

—Yvette Kantrow

Examples of explainer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The 43-page lawsuit includes detailed studies and explainers on decibel limits, which Roth said appeared to have been gathered before the venue even opened. —John Wenzel, Denver Post, 22 Jan. 2026

The listener becomes an evaluator, and the over-explainer an advocate for their own legitimacy. —Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 21 Jan. 2026

Mendoza has taken to TikTok and Instagram to make explainer videos throughout the city’s budget process, criticizing the drop in construction cranes across the city’s skyline and one-time deficit fillers. —Jake Sheridan, Chicago Tribune, 18 Jan. 2026

Read on for an explainer on what happened. —Stylecaster Editors, StyleCaster, 16 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1579, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for explainer

• abstainer
• campaigner
• complainer
• container
• coplanar
• detainer
• maintainer
• nonplanar
• retainer
• sustainer
• entertainer
• gainer