explicit

First attested 1609, from French explicite, from Latin explicitus (“disentangled", "easy”), an alternative form of the past participle of explicāre (“to unfold”), from ex- (“out”) + plicō (“to fold”). Pornographic sense is from 1971.

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈsplɪsɪt/ enPR: ĭk-splĭsʹĭt

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪsɪt

explicit (comparative more explicit, superlative most explicit)

1. Very specific, clear, or detailed.

   I gave explicit instructions for him to stay here, but he followed me, anyway.

2. (euphemistic) Containing material (e.g. language or film footage) that might be deemed offensive or graphic.

   The film had several scenes including explicit language and sex.

• (very specific, clear): express, manifest, overt
• (containing offensive material): raunchy

• (very specific, clear): implicit, unexplicit, vague
• (containing offensive material): circumspect

explicit

1. (obsolete) Used at the conclusion of a book to indicate the end.

• explicit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• explicit in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• (proscribed) excipit

Borrowed from Latin explicit (“to unfold”).

explicit m (plural explicits)

1. end (of a story)

• incipit

• “explicit” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Latin explicō (“to unfold”).

explicit m (oblique plural expliciz or explicitz, nominative singular expliciz or explicitz, nominative plural explicit)

1. end (of a story)

• finit

explicit

1. explicit

explicit

1. explicitly