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Explain vs Articulate - What's the difference?

explain | articulate |

In obsolete terms the difference between explain and articulate

is that explain is to unfold or make visible while articulate is to treat or make terms.

As verbs the difference between explain and articulate

is that explain is to make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of while articulate is to make clear or effective.

As an adjective articulate is

clear, effective.

As a noun articulate is

an animal of the subkingdom Articulata.

explain

English

(Explanation)

Verb

(en verb)
  • To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
  • *
  • The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Pixels or Perish , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
  • To give a valid excuse for some past behavior.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
  • (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
  • (obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
  • * (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
  • The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.

    Synonyms

    * (give a sufficiently detailed report) expound, elaborate

    articulate

    English

    (Articulation)

    Etymology 1

    .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • clear, effective
  • especially, speaking in a clear or effective manner
  • able to bend or hinge at certain points or intervals
  • Expressed in articles or in separate items or particulars.
  • (Francis Bacon)
  • Related to human speech, as distinct from the vocalisation of animals.
  • * 1728 , James Knapton and John Knapton, Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences , page 146:
  • Brutes cannot form articulate'' Sounds, cannot ''articulate the Sounds of the Voice, excepting some few Birds, as the Parrot, Pye, &c.
    Synonyms
    * (good at speaking) eloquent, well-spoken

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (label) An animal of the subkingdom Articulata.
  • Etymology 2

    From the adjective.

    Verb

    (articulat)
  • To make clear or effective.
  • To speak clearly; to enunciate.
  • I wish he’d articulate his words more clearly.
  • To explain; to put into words; to make something specific.
  • I like this painting, but I can’t articulate why.
  • To bend or hinge something at intervals, or to allow or build something so that it can bend.
  • an articulated bus
  • (music) to attack a note, as by tonguing, slurring, bowing, etc.
  • Articulate that passage heavily.
  • (anatomy) to form a joint or connect by joints
  • The lower jaw articulates with the skull at the temporomandibular joint.
  • (obsolete) To treat or make terms.
  • (Shakespeare)
    Derived terms
    *