Elucidate vs Justify - What's the difference?
elucidate | justify |
To make clear; to clarify; to shed light upon.
* 1817 , , Northanger Abbey , ch. 13:
* 1960 , "
* 2004 , David Bernstein, “
To provide an acceptable explanation for.
To be a good, acceptable reason for; warrant.
* E. Everett
To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned.
To absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin
* Shakespeare
* Bible, Acts xiii. 39
To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
As verbs the difference between elucidate and justify
is that elucidate is to make clear; to clarify; to shed light upon while justify is to provide an acceptable explanation for.elucidate
English
Verb
(elucidat)- The business, however, though not perfectly elucidated by this speech, soon ceased to be a puzzle.
Medicine: Unmasking the Brain," Time , 4 April:
- [P]hysicians at the annual meeting of the American Academy of General Practice were fascinated by a 3-ft. model showing the brain's components in 20 layers of translucent plastic, and wired for colored lights to elucidate some of its workings.
Philosophy Hitches a Ride With ‘The Sopranos’,” New York Times , 13 April (retrieved 19 Aug. 2009):
- The new Sopranos volume has 17 essays that examine the television show and elucidate concepts from classical philosophers, including Aristotle, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Sun Tzu and Plato.
Synonyms
* explicate, illuminateDerived terms
* elucidation * elucidative * elucidator * elucidatoryjustify
English
Alternative forms
* justifie (obsolete)Verb
- How can you justify spending so much money on clothes?
- Paying too much for car insurance is not justified .
- Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.
- Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify' revolution, it would not ' justify the evil of breaking up a government.
- The text will look better justified .
- I cannot justify whom the law condemns.
- By him all that believe are justified' from all things, from which ye could not be ' justified by the law of Moses.
- (Shakespeare)