Explanatory

How to spell explanatory

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce explanatory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does explanatory mean?

1. adjectiveServing to explain or make something clear.

Explanatory in a sentence

• The manual includes an explanatory note before each diagram.

• She added an explanatory paragraph so new staff could follow the process.

Where does explanatory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb explanare, which literally meant 'to make flat' or 'to smooth out', built from the prefix ex- 'out' and planus 'flat, level, clear'. The idea was that to explain something is to flatten out its wrinkles so it can be seen plainly, the same image that gives us the words 'plain' and 'plane'. The Latin noun explanatio and the related adjective forms passed into scholarly English around the early seventeenth century, with 'explanatory' meaning 'serving to explain or clarify'. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle and the ending: the schwa-laden '-anatory' is easy to mangle, and writers sometimes drop a letter or swap in '-itory'. Remembering the hidden word 'explain' helps anchor the 'explan-' core, even though the second syllable softens in speech.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• plan (from planus: flat, clear)
• -atory (adjective suffix meaning 'serving to')