EXPLAIN in a Sentence

Learn EXPLAIN from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.
331 example sentences for EXPLAIN, such as:
1. First, I'll explain the rules of the game.
2. She saw his frown and hastened to explain.
3. You'd better go and explain to the teacher.
4. He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.
5. She began to explain her plan of action to the group.
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Animal Farm by George Orwell
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 Meanings and Examples of EXPLAIN
explain
 v.  serve as a reason or cause or justification of
 v.  make plain and comprehensible
Classic Sentence: (210 in 15 pages)
1  I'll--I'll help you explain how you did it for the hospital.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER X
2  And, my dear, I would not have alarmed you by saying these things, were it not that I had to explain why I ask you to look after Melanie.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XV
3  Go to Mrs. Elsing's, and explain everything very carefully and tell her to please come up here.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXI
4  She would have to explain to her just why Mrs. Meade couldn't come and the knowledge that Phil Meade was badly wounded might upset her.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXI
5  Prissy went off at a trot, the letter gripped in her hand, and Scarlett went back upstairs, trying to think of some plausible lie to explain Mrs. Elsing's failure to appear.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXI
6  Then he had thought it all beyond her mental grasp and it had been pleasant to explain things to her.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVI
7  She never wrote him and naturally he could not write her and explain.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVI
8  Frank went on to explain in his patient manner, but the idea that ballots could cure the trouble was too complicated for her to follow.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVII
9  You have eternity in which to explain and only one night to be a martyr in the amphitheater.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LIII
10  "If you were not so drunk and insulting, I would explain everything," said Scarlett, recovering some dignity.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LIV
11  But at her first tumbled-out words: "Melly, I must explain about the other day--" Melanie had imperiously stopped her.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LV
12  If you can manage to listen to me for a few minutes without interrupting, I can explain what I mean.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LXIII
13  She broke off, laughing, to explain that she had come up to town from Tuxedo, on her way to the Gus Trenors' at Bellomont, and had missed the three-fifteen train to Rhinebeck.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: Chapter 1
14  He found Gerty as he had left her, simple, undemanding and devoted, but with a quickened intelligence of the heart which he recognized without seeking to explain it.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 8
15  But it was too much trouble to explain to Kennicott's kindly stubbornness that she was a practical housekeeper as well as a flighty playmate.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER VI
Example Sentence: (121 in 9 pages)
1  She began to explain her plan of action to the group.
2  If there's anything you don't understand, I'll be happy to explain.
3  They shouted him down when he tried to explain why Zaire needed an interim government.
4  The difficulties women encounter with their doctors partly explain why so many of us are looking to alternative therapies.
5  A more extreme version would be to compare and explain budget and actuals only for an organization as a whole.
6  The minister was called to court to explain his conduct.
7  To explain this, they hypothesise that galaxies must contain a great deal of missing matter which cannot be detected.
8  He outlined his plans and then proceeded to explain them in more detail.
9  The difference in the treatment they receive is hard to explain away.
10  There's a big difference between understanding something and being able to explain it to others.
11  This chapter will examine a range of theories which attempt to explain such behaviour.
12  She saw his frown and hastened to explain.
13  He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.
14  You'd better go and explain to the teacher.
15  First, I'll explain the rules of the game.