Word.ws English Dictionary

splained

splained is the simple past and past participle of splain.

Meaning of splain

Verb (1)

splain (third-person singular simple present splains, present participle splaining, simple past and past participle splained)

  1. (dialectal, informal) Apheretic form of explain.
    • "Howsomever, dey 'ranged der 'fairs, en splained der bizness."1881, Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus

Verb (2)

splain (third-person singular simple present splains, present participle splaining, simple past and past participle splained)

  1. (slang) To condescendingly explain something, often extensively, especially to someone that knows more about it; for example, to mansplain, whitesplain, etc.
    • Those who splain may have the intent of helping the situation, but the actual impact of their actions can feel condescending or insulting.2019, Jennifer Brown, How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Creating Trust, Cooperation, and Community across Differences, Berrett-Koehler, →ISBN, page 35

Questions about splained

What is splained the simple past and past participle of?
Splained is the simple past and past participle of splain.

Words near splained in the dictionary

  1. splachnocranium
  2. splachnoid
  3. splade
  4. splades
  5. splain
  6. splained
  7. splaining
  8. splainings
  9. splains
  10. splake
  11. splakes

Source and license

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