Word.ws English Dictionary

explains away

explains away is the third-person singular simple present indicative of explain away.

Meaning of explain away

Verb

explain away (third-person singular simple present explains away, present participle explaining away, simple past and past participle explained away)

  1. (transitive) To dismiss or minimize (a problem, etc.) by explanation.
    • He couldn't just explain away all of his problems.

Questions about explains away

What is explains away the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Explains away is the third-person singular simple present indicative of explain away.

Words near explains away in the dictionary

  1. explaining
  2. explaining away
  3. explainingly
  4. explainings
  5. explains
  6. explains away
  7. explaint
  8. explananda
  9. explanandum
  10. explanans
  11. explanantia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: explains away (page history and authors); explain away (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: “explains away.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/explains_away. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.