How to Use elucidate in a Sentence

elucidate

verb
  • When asked for details, he declined to elucidate further.
  • Signals of changes in the climate are harder to elucidate in these blazes.
    Umair Irfan, Vox, 12 Nov. 2018
  • Their blooms elucidate the first warm day of the season as not just a feeling, but a fact.
    Sara Tardiff, Vogue, 10 Sep. 2021
  • Now, a new study of the scroll is elucidating some of the methods that kept it intact for millennia.
    Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 9 Sep. 2019
  • But a closer reading elucidates what that brand always was.
    A.o. Scott, New York Times, 3 May 2023
  • Dialect is used not to define but to elucidate character.
    Deborah Johnson, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Mar. 2023
  • Maloney has an uncanny ability to recall and elucidate moments that couldn’t have been very clear at the time.
    Chris Vognar, USA TODAY, 10 Feb. 2022
  • The team’s findings add to, rather than elucidate, the mysteries surrounding the canvas.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Dec. 2019
  • Pinterest declined to elucidate whether the difference was due to rounding.
    Laura Forman, WSJ, 2 May 2022
  • Joe elucidated his view that New York was the industry’s one and only mecca.
    Nell Zink, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
  • Climate response time is one of the important 'details' that climate models help to elucidate.
    Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 21 July 2011
  • Much of the play is spent elucidating the minds of characters thrashing out the debate over patriotic duty and private conscience.
    Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2019
  • The potential upsides of pet ownership appear to outweigh the risks — and continue to be elucidated.
    Richard Schiffman, New York Times, 6 June 2017
  • Conversations with artists and curators seek to introduce and elucidate the many factors that inform the making of an image.
    Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Apr. 2020
  • If your marketer or team does not focus on the brand promise and elucidate it in the brand experience and messaging, then your branding means nothing to your customers.
    Expert Panel®, Forbes, 10 Nov. 2021
  • Woodpiles are one of the most mundane yet elucidating details O’Connor has studied.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, 16 Oct. 2017
  • Maybe someone would propose a study to elucidate the disconnect between the stereotype of single people as selfish and the reality of their giving ways.
    Bella Depaulo, chicagotribune.com, 26 May 2018
  • Philosophers and writers have spilled countless barrels of ink attempting to elucidate the origins of happiness.
    Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 6 Aug. 2014
  • Both of these techniques can elucidate the structure of proteins at near-atomic resolution.
    William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 28 Jan. 2022
  • And get there early to hear Zander’s lucid and elucidating introduction to the program, which will be like getting fit with a fresh pair of ears.
    BostonGlobe.com, 18 Oct. 2019
  • Moreover, the limits of what is desirable to promote abroad are drawn by truth, elucidated by reason and inlayed in tradition.
    Jakub Grygiel, National Review, 21 Aug. 2019
  • When humor was needed to elucidate the matter, Irwin unfurled some of his own matchless clowning skills.
    Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Dec. 2022
  • The use of pretentious phrases and complex acronyms is generally designed to obfuscate rather than elucidate.
    The Economist, 2 Jan. 2020
  • Your partner could support you by avoiding behaviors that elucidate your anxiety or trigger you.
    Elizabeth Ayoola, Essence, 27 Dec. 2022
  • Authorities have published intricate flow charts to try to elucidate the various routes to tanchuang.
    Pei-Lin Wu, Washington Post, 24 May 2022
  • Being a Cell paper there is a lot of neat molecular technique to elucidate the mechanistic pathways.
    Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 17 Oct. 2013
  • One suspects that the points Sankoff and Hein sought to elucidate precluded any more comprehensive portrayal of the conflicts and tensions that must have arisen.
    Peter Marks, Washington Post, 13 Dec. 2019
  • The researchers hoped to recover enough samples to help elucidate how chemical reactions between mantle rocks and water could have given rise to life on our planet.
    Carolyn Y. Johnson, Anchorage Daily News, 6 June 2023
  • This is especially true in elucidating the evolution of human traits.
    Quanta Magazine, 7 Sep. 2018
  • There is nothing in Catholic dogma that specifically elucidates the virtues of basketball.
    Marc Tracy, New York Times, 30 Mar. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'elucidate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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