illustration

1 something that visually explains or decorates a text this book on birds has gorgeous illustrations Synonyms diagram, figure, graphic, plate, visual Related Words art, artwork; drawing, illumination, image, pictogram, pictograph, picture; caption, key, legend; inset; depiction, pictorialization, portrait, portrayal, representation; clarification, elucidation, explanation, explication, exposition

2 a statement that makes something clear forced to give several illustrations until she was understood Synonyms clarification, construction, elucidation, exegesis, explication, exposition, illumination, explanation, interpretation, road mapRelated Words paraphrase, restatement, translation; annotation, comment, commentary, epexegesis, gloss; deciphering, decoding; disentanglement, unscrambling; analysis; edification, enlightenment; definition, meaning; demonstration, enactment; justification, rationale, rationalization, reasoning; caution, caveat, warning

3 a two-dimensional design intended to look like a person or thing the doctor sketched an illustration to explain the procedure to the patient Synonyms icon (also ikon), picture, image, likenessRelated Words delineation, depiction, representation, resemblance, view; portrait; daub, drawing, finger painting; etching, silhouette, sketch, watercolor; caricature, cartoon, doodle; collage, montage, photograph; hieroglyph, hieroglyphic, ideogram, ideograph; pictograph; diagram

4 one of a group or collection that shows what the whole is like chose one essay as an illustration of the high quality of the collection Synonyms case, exemplar, exemplification, example, instance, prototype, representative, sample, specimenRelated Words archetype, classic, locus classicus, paradigm; cross section, microcosm; evidence, indication, manifestation, sign