Synonyms: Explain

“Surely we can get Henry to call him and apologize.” The Secret History

The police commissioner agreed the seating rules were confusing and promised that the city’s attorney would soon clarify them in writing. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

One of the adults I don’t know is commenting on how much he likes the president because of his tax cuts. Finding Junie Kim

She'd read about those who had vision marvels—people who could see into the past, predict the future, decode dreams and nightmares, decipher prophecies, and have special memories. The Marvellers

But with experience we become expert at using our behavior and our training to interpret—and decode—what lies behind our snap judgments and first impressions. Blink

Lee defended himself to Adam, saying, “You have plenty of money. It would be a shame not to enjoy it.” East of Eden

It was the engineer who determined what problems to investigate, designed the experiments, and defined the assignments for the mathematicians. Hidden Figures

Thacker calls pessimism “the most adequate” and “the least helpful” of philosophies. He delineates two varieties of it: “The end is near” and “Will this never end?”

In another entry he described a visit from his latest wife, Georgiana Yoke. The Devil in the White City

He did not elaborate, and we did not ask for details. Dragonwings

He became the world’s foremost authority on thermodynamics and the first to elucidate the principles of the convection of fluids and the circulation of ocean currents. A Short History of Nearly Everything

Frank wanted to say something to excuse Percy and placate the god, but he didn’t know what. The Son of Neptune

In 1867, nearly a decade after the publication of Origin, he began to complete a new manuscript, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, in which he would fully explicate this view of inheritance. The Gene

He could expound on nearly any subject in class until the teacher had to ask him to stop, and if he’d ever made less than a hundred on a test, I wasn’t aware of it. October Sky

There is no way to gloss over slavery. In the Shadow of Liberty

We all waited patiently for father’s story to develop, because we knew he had a way of telling stories that very clearly illustrated the point he wanted to make. Bless Me, Ultima

You’ve listened to the testimony and you’ve had the law read to you and interpreted as it applies to this case. Twelve Angry Men

“The Government justifies keeping everyone else in poverty because people seem to work the hardest when they’re right on the edge of survival,” he continued. Among the Hidden

“Biko, wear something nice. Kainene will be dressing up too,” her mother had added, as if mentioning her twin sister somehow legitimized everything. Half of a Yellow Sun

The rich and powerful justify and naturalize such an outcome through a disproved theory known as "lifeboat ethics."Salon

Some of them sought to rationalize their behavior after the fact, as though fearful that history would judge them for their silence. Big Science

In classic style, the writer credits the reader with enough intelligence to realize that many concepts aren’t easy to define and that many controversies aren’t easy to resolve. The Sense of Style

Writing all this old ancient history down, I find it hard to riddle out in my mind the things that have really direct and pregnant bearing on the matter in hand. The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn

Because theories are always being changed to account for new observations, they are never properly digested or simplified so that ordinary people can understand them. A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays

Please let this be a puzzle, an elaborate game Papa has constructed, a riddle she must solve. All the Light We Cannot See

I’m not as fast as Roli, but I unravel the meaning quickly even though the same symbol is used for both E and I, which makes it tricky. Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Trouble arose only when authors used their stories to vindicate themselves against a great hurt or perceived injustice. Me Talk Pretty One Day