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Explain vs Highlight - What's the difference?

explain | highlight |

As verbs the difference between explain and highlight

is that explain is to make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of while highlight is to make prominent; emphasize.

As a noun highlight is

an area or a spot in a drawing, painting, or photograph that is strongly illuminated.

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

    Related terms

    * explanation * explain away * explanatory

    External links

    * * English reporting verbs 1000 English basic words

    highlight

    English

    Alternative forms

    * hilite (informal)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An area or a spot in a drawing, painting, or photograph that is strongly illuminated.
  • An especially significant or interesting detail or event.
  • (cosmetology) A strand or spot of hair dyed a different color than the rest.

    • Antonyms

    * (especially significant or interesting detail or event) lowlight

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make prominent; emphasize.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 21 , author=Helen Pidd , title=Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=The Guardian has spoken to dozens of Europeans who have left, or are planning to leave. Their stories highlight surprising new migration routes – from Lisbon to Luanda, Dublin to Perth, Barcelona to Buenos Aires – as well as more traditional migration patterns.}}
  • To be a highlight of.
  • To mark (important passages of text) with a usually fluorescent marker as a means of memory retention or for later reference.
  • To dye (part of the hair) a different color than the rest.