explicit
explicit Lexical Profile
explicit Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion, doubt, or ambiguity.
"The contract contains explicit instructions regarding how the financial assets should be distributed."
Describing or representingnudity, sexuality, violence, or offensive language in a direct, graphic, and uncensored manner.
"The album carries a warning label to alert parents about its explicit lyrics."
Outspoken and candid, holding nothing back in expressing one's thoughts or intentions.
"She was quite explicit about her dissatisfaction with the committee's final decision."
• noun
The closing words of a medieval manuscript, early printed book, or liturgical text, or a concluding formula indicating the end of a work.
"The cataloger recorded both the incipit and the explicit to identify the anonymous fifteenth-century manuscript."
Word Nuance & Usage
Often contrasted with 'implicit': something 'explicit' is stated directly and unmistakably, whereas something 'implicit' is implied or understood without being directly expressed.
• Rhymes for explicit
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the early 17th century from French explicite or Latin explicitus ('unobstructed, clear'), the past participle of explicare ('to unfold, unravel, or explain'), from ex- ('out') + plicare ('to fold'). The bibliographical noun derives from the medieval Latin scribal formula explicitus est liber ('the book is unrolled'), which was abbreviated to explicit at the end of a manuscript scroll.