How to Use elucidate in a Sentence

elucidate

verb
  • When asked for details, he declined to elucidate further.
  • Their blooms elucidate the first warm day of the season as not just a feeling, but a fact.
    — Sara Tardiff, Vogue, 10 Sep. 2021
  • Signals of changes in the climate are harder to elucidate in these blazes.
    — Umair Irfan, Vox, 12 Nov. 2018
  • Colleen Webb agreed that the specifics of spread in cattle need to be elucidated.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 5 June 2024
  • This episode, from stem to stern, really elucidates the problem with idols in the new era.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2024
  • Now, a new study of the scroll is elucidating some of the methods that kept it intact for millennia.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 9 Sep. 2019
  • These plans elucidate the facts about the local species, its threats, and measures of conservation.
    — Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 30 Oct. 2023
  • But Democrats’ goals, as elucidated at No Kings rallies, have not changed.
    — David Weigel, semafor.com, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Perhaps not lucid dreams, but elucidating ones.
    — Shaad D’souza, Pitchfork, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Maloney has an uncanny ability to recall and elucidate moments that couldn’t have been very clear at the time.
    — Chris Vognar, USA TODAY, 10 Feb. 2022
  • In such an environment, zombies elucidate the dangers of clinging to the past.
    — Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
  • The author elucidates other tales such as the Tower of Babel.
    — Joan Taylor, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Mar. 2024
  • The team’s findings add to, rather than elucidate, the mysteries surrounding the canvas.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Dec. 2019
  • Since the trial, multiple people involved have published books elucidating their own sides of the events.
    — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 20 Feb. 2026
  • Climate response time is one of the important 'details' that climate models help to elucidate.
    — Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 21 July 2011
  • Joe elucidated his view that New York was the industry’s one and only mecca.
    — Nell Zink, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
  • Pinterest declined to elucidate whether the difference was due to rounding.
    — Laura Forman, WSJ, 2 May 2022
  • When humor was needed to elucidate the matter, Irwin unfurled some of his own matchless clowning skills.
    — Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Woodpiles are one of the most mundane yet elucidating details O’Connor has studied.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, 16 Oct. 2017
  • Moreover, the limits of what is desirable to promote abroad are drawn by truth, elucidated by reason and inlayed in tradition.
    — Jakub Grygiel, National Review, 21 Aug. 2019
  • Astronomers hope that studying bursts that repeat their flashes, rather than just flare once, can help to elucidate the origins of FRBs.
    — Elizabeth Gibney, Scientific American, 15 Aug. 2019
  • And get there early to hear Zander’s lucid and elucidating introduction to the program, which will be like getting fit with a fresh pair of ears.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 18 Oct. 2019
  • Much of the play is spent elucidating the minds of characters thrashing out the debate over patriotic duty and private conscience.
    — Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2019
  • If your marketer or team does not focus on the brand promise and elucidate it in the brand experience and messaging, then your branding means nothing to your customers.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 10 Nov. 2021
  • That means working towards structural change, not just surface change, and committing to tracking the metrics which elucidate that—things like water use, and toxic waste.
    — Cassie Werber, Quartz at Work, 12 Dec. 2019
  • The potential upsides of pet ownership appear to outweigh the risks — and continue to be elucidated.
    — Richard Schiffman, New York Times, 6 June 2017
  • This might seem strange, given that art history serves to preserve and elucidate art objects, and that neither museum people nor academics are averse to a good public scrap.
    — Susan Tallman, The New York Review of Books, 8 Sep. 2020
  • Building flexible classrooms gives the building a lifespan beyond one class or even one era of pedagogy, which, as Fertig elucidates, are sure to evolve.
    — Maya Chawla, Architectural Digest, 25 Sep. 2024
  • Stephanie Wickens, writing for Healthista last year, elucidates a bit more clearly how the world Rowling created pushed her to learn to read.
    — Danielle Tcholakian, Longreads, 27 June 2017
  • One suspects that the points Sankoff and Hein sought to elucidate precluded any more comprehensive portrayal of the conflicts and tensions that must have arisen.
    — Peter Marks, Washington Post, 13 Dec. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'elucidate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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