Sample Sentences for
elaborate
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

elaborate as in:  elaborate on your plan

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Please elaborate on the reasons you think this is the best plan.
elaborate = explain in detail
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    As we talked, she elaborated on her idea
    elaborated = added details
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    He didn't elaborate, and his face said he didn't plan to.  (source)
    elaborate = tell more details
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    "Good," Professeur Cole says. "More. Elaborate."  (source)
    Elaborate = add more detail
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Show 10 more with 9 word variations
  • •
    He elaborated without encouragement, citing the advantages of Devon's physical hardening program and of a high school diploma when he did in good time reach basic training.  (source)
    elaborated = explained in more detail
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    Long ago, in his youth, when he'd been a "troubled teen," as he told her without elaboration, a social worker at his school had signed him up for the Big Brother program, and he'd always felt that his big brother—his mentor, he calls him—kept him on track.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.
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    He doesn't elaborate.  (source)
    elaborate = tell more details
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    "I wonder if you'd like to come back to London with us?" he asked, making the first move in a campaign whose strategy he had been secretly elaborating ever since, in the little house, he had realized who the "father" of this young savage must be.  (source)
    elaborating = developing details
  • •
    Until she elaborates.†  (source)
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    Billy finally managed to get his news in edgewise during my continuing elaborations.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tions", converts a verb into a plural noun that denotes results of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in actions, illustrations, and observations.
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    It is wonderful with what elaborateness this simple fact is advertised—this piscine murder will out—and from my distant perch I distinguish the circling undulations when they are half a dozen rods in diameter.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
  • •
    These three remarks went unelaborated upon.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unelaborated means not and reverses the meaning of elaborated. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    But the idea of this dried-up pedant, this elaborator of small explanations about as important as the surplus stock of false antiquities kept in a vendor's back chamber, having first got this adorable young creature to marry him, and then passing his honeymoon away from her, groping after his mouldy futilities (Will was given to hyperbole)—this sudden picture stirred him with a sort of comic disgust: he was divided between the impulse to laugh aloud and the equally unseasonable impulse to burst into scornful invective.†  (source)
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    These three had elaborated old Major's teachings into a complete system of thought, to which they gave the name of Animalism.  (source)
    elaborated = added details
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elaborate as in:  an elaborate design

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It's part of her elaborate plan for getting accepted at Harvard.
elaborate = complicated
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    Their culture has elaborate wedding ceremonies.
    elaborate = with many details or features
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    It is an elaborate remake of her independent film, but this time with a Hollywood budget.
    elaborate = special due to added detail or features
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    It has an elaborate lace pattern.
    elaborate = with complicated detail
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    Grant was surprised: the construction was elaborate.  (source)
    elaborate = extravagant (large or expensive)
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    A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs.  (source)
    elaborately = with much detail or complexity
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    Most armies needed three months because they had to memorize dozens of elaboration formations.  (source)
    elaboration = something that adds detail or complexity
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.
  • •
    I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie.  (source)
    elaborateness = level of detail
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
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    From then on, I began to think of the Hunt as an elaborate D&D module.  (source)
    elaborate = with many details or features
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    Whether disguised as Ben Franklin or a lowly drummer boy, he always acted a role in the elaborately staged pageants which he wrote and directed.  (source)
    elaborately = developed with much detail
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    Like a scientist's assistant, his lot was simply to record the data and then relay a summary to his superiors without embellishment or elaboration.  (source)
    elaboration = anything added
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    Filled with gears and pulleys and wires and an elaborate computer system.  (source)
    elaborate = complex
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    Oh, how pretty it was—a lovely soft brown gloria with all the gloss of silk; a skirt with dainty frills and shirrings; a waist elaborately pintucked in the most fashionable way, with a little ruffle of filmy lace at the neck.  (source)
    elaborately = with much detail or complexity
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    Whether it was a dream or an elaborate game, she'd show them all she was a good sport.  (source)
    elaborate = detailed and complicated
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elaborate as in:  an elaborate wink

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    Count Olaf had a great number of very long speeches, which he performed with elaborate gestures and facial expressions.  (source)
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    The smiling slender man in his early thirties, with his protruding ears, balding head, and minuscule glasses, gave an elaborate bow.  (source)
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    I turned around with elaborate resignation.  (source)
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Show 10 more with 2 word variations
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    Ralph believed that everything he said had to be epic, shocking, and elaborate.  (source)
    elaborate = exaggerated (or with lots of detail)
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    Elaborately casual, they start sauntering off as Krupke appears.  (source)
    Elaborately = in an exaggerated manner
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    Brother isn't really crazy yet he—he's an elaborate neurotic.  (source)
    elaborate = exaggerated (or with lots of detail)
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    She coughed elaborately at the door so that Philip should have time to compose himself, she felt that he would be humiliated if she came upon him in the midst of his tears, then she rattled the door handle.  (source)
    elaborately = in an exaggerated manner
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    But Lennie made an elaborate pantomime of innocence.  (source)
    elaborate = exaggerated (or with lots of detail)
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    Brinker began talking to him in the elaborately casual manner of someone being watched.  (source)
    elaborately = exaggeratedly
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    [Nick describing Gatsby:] ...I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd.  (source)
    elaborate = exaggerated
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    He coughed and then elaborately refilled and lit his pipe.  (source)
    elaborately = in an exaggerated manner
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    I had clearly gotten the best of her, so I sobered to an elaborate caricature of humility.  (source)
    elaborate = exaggerated
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    Brinker turned elaborately toward him.  (source)
    elaborately = in an exaggerated manner
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