Clarify vs Explain - What's the difference?
clarify | explain |
To make clear or bright by freeing from feculent matter; to defecate; to fine; -- said of liquids, as wine or syrup.
* (rfdate) Ure:
To make clear; to free from obscurities; to brighten or illuminate.
* (rfdate) South:
(ergative) To grow or become clear or transparent; to become free from feculent impurities, as wine or other liquid under clarification.
* Leave the wine for 24 hours and it will clarify .
(ergative) To grow clear or bright; to clear up.
(obsolete) To glorify.
To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
*
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
, author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106
, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= 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= (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
(obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
In obsolete terms the difference between clarify and explain
is that clarify is to glorify while explain is to unfold or make visible.As verbs the difference between clarify and explain
is that clarify is to make clear or bright by freeing from feculent matter; to defecate; to fine; -- said of liquids, as wine or syrup while explain is to make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.clarify
English
(Webster 1913)Verb
(en-verb)- Boiled and clarified .
- To clarify his reason, and to rectify his will.
explain
English
(Explanation)Verb
(en verb)- 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 .
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.}}
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; […].}}
- The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.