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Explanation vs Understanding - What's the difference?

explanation | understanding |

As nouns the difference between explanation and understanding

is that explanation is the act or process of explaining while understanding is mental, sometimes emotional process of comprehension, assimilation of knowledge, which is subjective by its nature.

As an adjective understanding is

showing compassion.

As a verb understanding is

present participle of lang=en.

explanation

English

(wikipedia explanation)

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act or process of explaining.
    • The explanation was long and drawn-out.
  • Something that explains, makes understandable.
    • An explanation for each UFO sighting was easily found.
  • (euphemistic) An excuse, apologetic justification not based on enough evidence.
    • expense.

    Synonyms

    * (act or process of explaining) clarification, elucidation, elaboration

    Related terms

    * explain * explanatory * explicative * explicator * explicatory

    External links

    * *

    understanding

    English

    (wikipedia understanding)

    Noun

  • (uncountable) Mental, sometimes emotional process of comprehension, assimilation of knowledge, which is subjective by its nature.
  • (countable) Reason or intelligence, ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge, ability to infer.
  • (countable) Opinion, judgement or outlook.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.}}
  • (countable) An informal contract, mutual agreement.
  • (countable) A reconciliation of differences.
  • (uncountable) Sympathy.
  • All that people individually sense and feel of themselves.

    • See also

    * intellection

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Showing compassion.

    • Verb

    (head)
  • * {{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]: […];  […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.}}