elaborate
/ɪˈlæb.(ə.)ɹət//ɪˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/
elaborate adjective: complex, detailed, or sophisticated.
Adjective
elaborate (comparative more elaborate, superlative most elaborate)
- Complex, detailed, or sophisticated.
- After reading a long, elaborate description, I was impressed but no wiser.
- Synonyms:
- fussy
- Intricate, fancy, flashy, or showy.
- I stared for hours at the elaborate pattern in the rug.
- The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- busy
Verb
elaborate (third-person singular simple present elaborates, present participle elaborating, simple past and past participle elaborated)
- Тo develop in detail or complexity.
- […] by the time of the subsequent coronation, when the Prussian king put the crown on his own head in child-like belief of the obsolete doctrine called divine right, the untiring statesman had elaborated his scheme of reform.1871, “Bismarck”, in All the Year Round, volume 5, page 129
- The notion of blood purity was first elaborated in Europe, where it was used to separate Old Christians from Spain’s New Christians—women and men of Jewish and Muslim origin whose ancestors had converted to Christianity.2009, Irene Silverblatt, “Foreword”, in Andrew B. Fisher, Matthew D. O'hara, editors, Imperial Subjects: Race and Identity in Colonial Latin America, page xi
- To expand/enlarge in detail.
- What do you mean you didn't come home last night? Would you care to elaborate?
- Could you elaborate on the plot for your novel for me?
elaborate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
elaborate in Hindi
- detailed
- विस्तृत vistŕt
- to give further detail or explanation
- विस्तृत vistŕt
elaborate in Tamil
- விரிவுபடுத்து, விரிவுசெய், விரிவான, விமரிசையான
elaborate in Marathi
- तपशीलवार सांगण्यासाठी, सविस्तर सांगण्यासाठी, विस्ताराने सांगण्यासाठी
elaborate in Urdu
- پرتکلف, صراحت کرنا, وضاحت کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
- elaborate in Bengali
- সুচারুভাবে তৈরি, বিস্তারিত, জটিল ও সূক্ষ্ম কারুকার্যমণ্ডিত
- elaborate in Telugu
- వివరంగా చెప్పడానికి
- elaborate in Malayalam
- ശ്രദ്ധാപൂർവ്വം തയ്യാറാക്കിയ, വളരെ വിശദമായ, വിശാലമായ
- elaborate in Kannada
- ವಿಸ್ತರಿಸು, ವಿವರಿಸು, ವಿವರವಾಗಿ ತಿಳಿಸು, ಸಾದ್ಯಂತವಾಗಿ ಹೇಳು
- elaborate in Gujarati
- વિગતવાર જણાવવા માટે
- elaborate in Arabic
- مُفَصَّل mufaṣṣal
- elaborate in Persian
- شرح دادن
- elaborate in Thai
- ขยาย kà-yǎai, ขยายความ
Examples of elaborate in a sentence
- King Charles III’s coronation is to be much less elaborate compared to his mother’s.
- Most cottages in the area were larger and more elaborate than my home.
- The bird was courting a potential mate by performing an elaborate dance.
Synonyms of elaborate
Forms of elaborate
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more elaborate |
| superlative | most elaborate |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | elaborates |
| present participle | elaborating |
| past participle | elaborated |
| past | elaborated |
Origin of elaborate
1575, from Late Latin ēlabōrātus (“worked out”), past participle of ēlabōrō (“to work out”), from ē- (“out, forth, fully”) + labor (“work, toil, exertion”). More at e-, labour.
Words formed from elaborate
Questions about elaborate
- What does elaborate mean?
- Elaborate means complex, detailed, or sophisticated.
- What is elaborate in Hindi?
- Elaborate in Hindi is विस्तृत (vistŕt). See Elaborate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is elaborate?
- Elaborate can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce elaborate?
- Elaborate is pronounced /ɪˈlæb.(ə.)ɹət/.
Words near elaborate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: elaborate (page history and authors); elaborate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); elaborate (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elaborate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Elaborate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); elaborate (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elaborate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); elaborate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); elaborate (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-elaborate.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-elaborate (verb).wav.
Cite this entry: “elaborate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/elaborate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.