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Glite Dictionary
🎭 Very detailed 🗣️ To explain more 🧬 To produce
to elaborate

to elaborate

5 4.8
To make a more complex thing from simple parts
  • verb
  • /ɪˈlæbəˌreɪt/
translation icon : elaborar
  • The Maya did not originate their calendar system, but rather elaborated it from a system inherited from the Olmec.
  • elaborate a theory
  • fully elaborated
  • highly elaborated

Examples

  • Many theories have been elaborated to predict or explain violent outcomes.

    Academic text (1996)

  • After Aquinas, other Christian writers elaborated on his three just war conditions.

    Academic text (2003)

  • So the color circle was then elaborated upon over many years.

  • As the United States government realized the existence of such families, it elaborated its rules.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Principles governing the protection of human subjects have subsequently been elaborated in the Helsinki Accords and the Belmont Report.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The teacher asked the student to elaborate on his ideas during the presentation.

  • The scientist will elaborate on her findings in the upcoming journal article.

  • During the meeting, she took the opportunity to elaborate on the project's objectives.

Synonyms

to develop
vsto elaborate
668 1.8

To create something new like an idea or product

focuses on making something from basic elements and refining it into complexity
to synthesize
vsto elaborate
55 6.4

To combine ideas or materials to make something new

often produces by building from basic elements or refining initial parts
to fabricate
vsto elaborate
  • Specialized
30 5.5

To make something from parts in a factory

emphasizes starting from basic elements and refining into complexity rather than assembling parts
to concretize
vsto elaborate
  • US
1 7.9

To make an idea or plan clear and specific

focuses on creating or refining material elements into a more complex product
to create from raw material
vsto elaborate
4.0

To make something using raw materials

focuses on developing or refining things into a more complex product

Antonyms

to reduce
∞ 1.6

To make something smaller in amount, size, or number

to simplify
99 2.5

Make something easier to understand or use

Idioms

in an elaborate way
4.4

With many careful details and clear planning

How Complex

to refine
93 4.0
to develop
905 1.6
to elaborate
5 4.8
to construct
201 3.5
to assemble
169 2.9

Surface Forms

elaborate infinitive
elaborated past
elaborated past participle
elaborating present participle
elaborates third person singular

Morphology

elaborate = labor (semi-transparent) = e + labor + ate

The prefix 'e-' and root 'labor' are clear, but the specific meaning of 'elaborate' as 'to produce something from basic elements' is not directly derivable from 'labor'.

Etymology

Elaborate comes from the Latin root laborare 'to work', and it kept the idea of making something by careful work. So to elaborate a product or a molecule is to 'work out' and develop it from simple parts.