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

Re-read Lev Facher’s explainer on medetomidine from last year, and another great piece from STAT contributor Hannah Harris Green on how jails are on the front line of addressing this new, complicated type of withdrawal. — Theresa Gaffney, STAT, 16 Sep. 2026

Then came the how-to guides, in posts filled with menu combinations and step-by-step explainers on how to navigate Chipotle’s build-your-own ordering system. — Jenny Lee, CNBC, 9 Sep. 2026

Official inflation is near 90%, the rial has passed 2 million to the dollar, and the IMF has this year put the contraction in a range of about 5 to 6 percent, per Anadolu's explainer and the Fund's later wartime update. — Güney Yıldız, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026

Co-directed with Nick Gibbons, the 2018 short takes the structure of a video-game explainer. — Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 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