Word.ws English Dictionary

richsplain

richsplain verb: to explain to a poor person (as a middle-class or wealthy person) in a condescending manner, presuming the listener's inferior understanding.

Verb

richsplain (third-person singular simple present richsplains, present participle richsplaining, simple past and past participle richsplained)

  1. (derogatory, informal) To explain to a poor person (as a middle-class or wealthy person) in a condescending manner, presuming the listener's inferior understanding.
    • It should also be acknowledged that Trollope “richsplains” to the Canadians but not to his English readers, who come from the upper or middle classes.2016, Barbara Ludwiczak, “'What is the cry even of the Canadians?': Resistance towards Imperial Paternalism and US 'braggadocio' in Anthony Trollope’s North America”, in TransCanadiana: Polish...
    • In this period of declining mobility and the American dream falling out of people's reach, rich people generally responded by richsplaining to them that all was well, that you were wrong about your own reality, things were getting better and you just had to sit down and shut up and lean in.2018, Anand Giridharadas, quoted in Erica Moody, "Enabling Inequality", Washington Life Magazine, October 2018, page 45

Forms of richsplain

third-person singular presentrichsplains
present participlerichsplaining
past participlerichsplained
pastrichsplained
alternative formrich-splain

Origin of richsplain

From rich + -splain, after the pattern of mansplain.

Questions about richsplain

What does richsplain mean?
Richsplain means to explain to a poor person (as a middle-class or wealthy person) in a condescending manner, presuming the listener's inferior understanding.
What part of speech is richsplain?
Richsplain is a verb.
What is the past tense of richsplain?
The past tense of richsplain is richsplained.

Words near richsplain in the dictionary

  1. richness
  2. richnesses
  3. Richonne
  4. Richoux
  5. Richouxes
  6. richsplain
  7. richsplained
  8. richsplaining
  9. richsplains
  10. Richtel
  11. Richter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: richsplain (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: “richsplain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/richsplain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.