Inform vs Explain - What's the difference?
inform | explain |
(archaic) To instruct, train (usually in matters of knowledge).
To communicate knowledge to.
* Spenser
* Shakespeare
To impart information or knowledge.
To act as an informer; denounce.
To give form or character to; to inspire (with a given quality); to affect, influence (with a pervading principle, idea etc.).
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
, volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= * Dryden
* Prior
(obsolete) To make known, wisely and/or knowledgeably.
(obsolete) To direct, guide.
(archaic) To take form; to become visible or manifest; to appear.
* Shakespeare
Without regular form; shapeless; ugly; deformed.
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)
As verbs the difference between inform and explain
is that inform is to instruct, train (usually in matters of knowledge) while explain is to make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.As an adjective inform
is without regular form; shapeless; ugly; deformed.inform
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) informen, enformen, from (etyl) enformer, .Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Verb
(en verb)- For he would learn their business secretly, / And then inform his master hastily.
- I am informed thoroughly of the cause.
Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution, passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.}}
- Let others better mould the running mass / Of metals, and inform the breathing brass.
- Breath informs this fleeting frame.
- It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.
Synonyms
* acquaint, apprise, notify * (act as informer) dob, name names, peach, snitchDerived terms
* informant * information * informative * informatory * informed * informer * misinform * uninformedEtymology 2
(etyl) (lena) informisAdjective
(-)- (Cotton)
Anagrams
*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.