ablesplain
ablesplain verb: to explain something related to disability in a manner that is condescending or shows a lack of understanding, compassion, or respect for the disabled.
Verb
ablesplain (third-person singular simple present ablesplains, present participle ablesplaining, simple past and past participle ablesplained)
- To explain something related to disability in a manner that is condescending or shows a lack of understanding, compassion, or respect for the disabled.
- The disability needs to be “ablesplained” by a medical authority—and these explanations often usurp the voice or perspective of the narrator and overwrite their identity in scientific and pathological terms.2016, Jay Dolmage, Dale Jacobs, “Mutable Articulations: Disability Rhetorics and the Comics Medium”, in C. Foss, J. Gray, Zach Whalen, editors, Disability in Comic Books and Graphic Narratives, page...
- 'They just ablesplained their delay by using a disabled passenger as an excuse. And it's a disabled passenger I know. You truly cannot make this up.'2017, Samantha Connor, quoted in April Glover, "Qantas pilot slammed for 'patronising announcement' blaming flight delay on wheelchair-bound passenger", Daily Mail, 15 June 2017
Forms of ablesplain
| third-person singular present | ablesplains |
|---|---|
| present participle | ablesplaining |
| past participle | ablesplained |
| past | ablesplained |
Origin of ablesplain
From able + -splain.
Words formed from ablesplain
Questions about ablesplain
- What does ablesplain mean?
- Ablesplain means to explain something related to disability in a manner that is condescending or shows a lack of understanding, compassion, or respect for the disabled.
- What part of speech is ablesplain?
- Ablesplain is a verb.
- What is the past tense of ablesplain?
- The past tense of ablesplain is ablesplained.
Words near ablesplain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ablesplain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “ablesplain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ablesplain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
