Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: EXPLAINING |
EXPLAININGPersonal pronoun & verb & noun1. Of Explain |
Date "EXPLAINING" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1509. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Mama always had a way of explaining things so that I could understand them (Forrest Gump; writing credit: Eric Roth) I'm going to have a hard time explaining this to my dad. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) You were saying you'd have no trouble explaining it. (Star Trek; writing credit: Walter Black; William Hamilton) | |
Lyrics | So please stop explaining (Don't Speak; performing artist: No Doubt) | |
Clever | I refused to attend his funeral. But I wrote a very nice letter explaining that I approved of it. (references; author: Mark Twain) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Shown is a series of three illustrations of breast reconstruction after a mastectomy, explaining how back muscles (latissimus dorsi) are used to reconstruct the breast. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | This was an early poster explaining the historical significance of finding a cure for gonorrhea. Credit: CDC. |
 | Poster explaining how gonnorhea "The Great Crippler" can be cured in 4hrs with penicillin. Credit: CDC. |  | Soyuz 4 Commander Explaining in-Orbit Docking of Soyuz 4/5. Credit: NASA. |
 | Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute have new evidence for explaining the ... Credit: NASA. |  | Historical monument explaining significance of Meade's Ranch Control point for the North American Datum. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Contractor and NMFS manager explaining the project to the media. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Dr. Harris B. Stewart, Chief Oceanographer of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, explaining the operation of the Nansen Bottle to Ceylonese scientists visiting the C&GS Ship PIONEER during the International Indian Ocean Expedition. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now. |
 | Professor Thoulet explaining sounding operations to a lady of the entourage of King Alphonse XIII of Spain. Plate VI, print 2. In: "Results of the Scientific Campaigns of the Prince of Monaco." Vol. 89. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now. |  | Larry Coburn explaining soils horizens at the Soils of Georgia Exhibit, Lockerley Arboretum, Georgia. The soils exhibit and pit was built with the cooperation of the NRCS and RC&D. Credit: Jeff Vanuga. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| ""Explaining"" by Tina Lorien Commentary: "Explaining the wonders of olive oil production!!!! ;-)." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
Author Unknown | What you don't know takes a lot of explaining to the children. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | An old man, of thirty, was advising a young one, of eighteen, and explaining to him what sort of an adversary he had to deal with |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | They could hear him talking softly in the other end of the car, explaining the result of his embassy |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | You need to become informed about a test before explaining it to your child. (references) | |
He was not eligible for the clinical trial and asked if FDA could please get the drug for him or make the company give it to him. After explaining that FDA cannot compel a company to supply a product, an FDA staff member, trained to work with cancer patients, spent many hours on the phone with this patient over the course of a week, explaining sources of information regarding kidney cancer clinical trials and helping him to understand options he might pursue in lieu of the trial he was not eligible to enter under the company’s protocol. (references) | ||
Children | Hong Kong | A child witness information kit in Chinese, with books explaining legal and court proceedings, also has been published to help reduce children's anxiety about testifying. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Uzbekistan | In explaining the confiscation, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Human Rights Watch that it objected to the content of the Memorial report. (references) |
Estonia | In May the MIA declined to approve the application, explaining that it could not formally register this church under its desired name, since it would be confused too easily with the EAOC. (references) | |
Economic History | Singapore | Interested companies should submit a preliminary business plan explaining the scope of the proposed e-commerce project. (references) |
Eritrea | A booklet (Proclamation # 72/1995) explaining business licensing regulations is available at Eritrean embassies abroad. (references) | |
Denmark | Any U.S. Export Assistance Office will assist a U.S. exporter in explaining the scope and advantages of the FMR. In Denmark, a number of private companies also perform market research. (references) | |
Human Rights | Macedonia | The Government did not issue a statement explaining why it did not release the remaining 24 persons who were eligible for pardon. (references) |
Brazil | As part of this effort, police in Sao Paulo who kill a suspect are required to fill out, within 24 hours, a detailed report explaining why lethal force was used. (references) | |
Guatemala | The campaign was designed to strengthen the role of educators, community leaders, and local officials in the prevention process by explaining the functioning of judicial procedures. (references) | |
Political Economy | BRAZIL | If inflation exceeds the outer band, the Central Bank president needs to address an open letter to the Minister of Finance explaining why the target was not met. (references) |
Trade | Japan | Japanese customs officials are generally very helpful explaining procedures and regulations, and once these are understood and followed, difficulties are minor and rare. (references) |
Women | Madagascar | A number of NGO's focus on the civic education of women and girls, publicizing and explaining their legal protections. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | TOMB, n. The House of Indifference. Tombs are now by common consent invested with a certain sanctity, but when they have been long tenanted it is considered no sin to break them open and rifle them, the famous Egyptologist, Dr. Huggyns, explaining that a tomb may be innocently "glened" as soon as its occupant is done "smellynge," the soul being then all exhaled. This reasonable view is now generally accepted by archaeologists, whereby the noble science of Curiosity has been greatly dignified. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | I would love to see Byrd on TV fulminating, explaining and apologizing for that white N-word like Lott had to apologize for his statements, but it'll never happen. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "EXPLAINING" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 99.76% of the time. "EXPLAINING" is used about 1,689 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 99.76% | 1,685 | 4,969 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.24% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,689 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "EXPLAINING". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Beeroth | N/A | Biblical | Explaining |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "EXPLAINING": explaining-understanding. | |
Ending with "EXPLAINING": all-explaining, self-explaining. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
child death explaining | 18 |
dream explaining | 6 |
explaining matrix | 4 |
explaining matrix reloaded | 4 |
chart effect explaining green house | 3 |
explaining harassment sexual theory | 3 |
11 explaining september | 3 |
credit derogatory explaining letter sample | 3 |
adoption explaining | 2 |
explaining | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "EXPLAINING"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Chinese | 解释 (Aread, Areed, Explain, Explained, Explanation, Explication, interpret, interpretation, interpreted, interpreting). (various references) | |
Dutch | woonplaats (abode, dwelling-place, dwelling-place-residence, residence), domicilie (abode, dwelling-place, residence). (various references) | |
Finnish | estettä ilmoittamatta (without explaining one's absence). (various references) | |
French | expliquant. (various references) | |
German | erklärend (declarative, declaring, explanatory, expository, expounding, illustrative, interpretative, melding, professing), darlegend. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מבאר (commentator, explanatory). (various references) | |
Indonesian | pembeberan. (various references) | |
Italian | espositivo (expositive). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 輪講 (people taking turns reading and explaining a book), 訳解 (translating and explaining), 訓釈 (explaining the meanings of old words). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | くんしゃく (explaining the meanings of old words, peerage and order of merit), りんこう (emperor's visit, facingthe harbor, people taking turns reading and explaining a book, phosphorescence, phosphoric ore), やっかい (bother, burden, care, dependence, kindness, obligation, support, translating and explaining, trouble, worry). (various references) | |
Korean | 설명 (Elucidating, Elucidative, Explanation, Explanatory, Illustrating). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | explainingay.(various references) | |
Romanian | lãmurire (elucidation, explanation). (various references) | |
Russian | объяснять объяснение объясняющий. (various references) | |
Turkish | hesap verme (account, rendering of account). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "EXPLAINING": overexplaining. (additional references) | |
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"EXPLAINING" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: explanans. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "EXPLAINING" (pronounced iksplā"ning) |
| 6 | -p l ā" n i ng | complaining. |
| 4 | -ā" n i ng | abstaining, ascertaining, attaining, campaigning, caning, chaining, constraining, containing, detaining, disdaining, draining, entertaining, feigning, gaining, maintaining, obtaining, ordaining, overtraining, pertaining, raining, refraining, regaining, reigning, reining, remaining, restraining, retaining, retraining, staining, straining, sustaining, training, waning. |
| 3 | -n i ng | apportioning, abandoning, adjoining, adjourning, aligning, assigning, auctioning, auditioning, awakening, awning, ballooning, banning, bargaining, battening, beckoning, beginning, bemoaning, binning, blackening, bludgeoning, boning, branning, brightening, brining, broadening, Browning, burdening, burgeoning, burning, Canning, captioning, careening, cartooning, cautioning, championing, chaperoning, cheapening, christening, churning, cleaning, cloning, clowning, coarsening, cocooning, coining, combining, commissioning, concerning, conditioning, condoning, confining, conning, convening, Corning, couponing, crooning, crowning, cunning, cushioning, dampening, darkening, dawning, deadening, deafening, declining, decommissioning, deepening, defining, demeaning, Denning, designing, determining, dining, Dinning, discerning, disciplining, disheartening, disillusioning, divining, donning, Downing, droning, drowning, Dunning, Durning, earning, enjoining, enlightening, envisioning, evening, examining, fanning, fashioning, fastening, fattening, fawning, fining, finning, flattening, freshening, frightening, frowning, functioning, gardening, ginning, glistening, governing, greening, grinning, groaning, gunning, happening, hardening, hastening, headlining, heartening, heightening, honing, Horning, housecleaning, imagining, imprisoning, impugning, inning, intertwining, intervening, intoning, ironing, jawboning, jettisoning, joining, Kenning, leaning, learning, leavening, lengthening, lessening, lightening, lightning, likening, lining, listening, loaning, loosening, machining, maddening, malfunctioning, Manning, margining, meaning, mentioning, midmorning, mining, moaning, morning, motioning, mourning, opening, opining, orphaning, outlining, overrunning, overturning, owning, panning, pardoning, partitioning, penning, petitioning, phoning, pining, pinning, planning, poisoning, positioning, postponing, preening, preplanning, provisioning, pruning, quarantining, questioning, quickening, rationing, realigning, reasoning, reassigning, reawakening, reckoning, reclining, reconditioning, redefining, redesigning, redlining, reexamining, refining, rejoining, relearning, reopening, repositioning, rerunning, resigning, returning, rezoning, ripening, ruining, running, saddening, sanctioning, scanning, screening, seasoning, sectioning, sharpening, shining, shortening, shunning, sickening, signing, sinning, siphoning, slackening, softening, spanning, spawning, spinning, spurning, stationing, stiffening, stoning, straightening, streamlining, strengthening, stunning, summoning, sunning, sweetening, swooning, tanning, telephoning, thickening, thinning, threatening, tightening, toning, toughening, tuning, turning, twining, underlining, undermining, underpinning, unquestioning, unreasoning, vacationing, Vining, warning, weakening, weaning, whining, whitening, widening, wining, winning, worsening, yawning, yearning, zoning. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-g-i-i-l-n-n-p-x" | |
-2 letters: aliening, paneling, plaining. | |
-3 letters: alining, aneling, aniline, eanling, exilian, exiling, explain, leaning, leaping, nailing, paining, pealing, peining, planing. | |
-4 letters: ailing, alexin, alpine, anilin, genial, lignin, linage, lining, nilgai, nixing, paling, pangen, penang, penial, pennia, pieing, piling, pinang, pineal, pining, pinnae, pinnal, xenial. | |
-5 letters: agile, algin, alien, align, aline, angel, angle, anile, annex, aping, axile. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-g-i-i-l-n-n-p-x" | |
+4 letters: overexplaining. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Spoken 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Names: Derived from 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
