verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
describe/explain sth in detail
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The doctor spent time describing the treatment in detail to me.
explain the presence of sth/sb
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How could he possibly explain the presence of so much money in his flat?
explain the reasons for sth
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Explain the reasons for your choice.
explain your dilemma (= talk about it )
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He explained his dilemma to me.
explain...predicament
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She went to the office to explain her predicament .
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
away
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She had almost been tempted to explain away André's remark, but her mind was working quickly.
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There are many others, but most can be explained away , or are inconclusive.
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It is something that can not be explained away .
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If the relationship between two variables disappears when a prior variable is controlled, the original effect has been explained away .
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Those changes that were noticed were explained away as disturbances in the upper atmosphere.
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This staggering figure could not easily be explained away .
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There may be some justification for this if you are trying to explain away your overdraft to the bank manager yet again.
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Recognising this paradox lends weight to the patriarchy thesis, explaining away many apparent counter-examples.
how
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He explains how he felt a tingling sensation down his left-hand side but did not immediately call for help.
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Here's a few reasons that might explain how Brown won.
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This sediment thickening indicates the role of sediment loading in sustaining basin subsidence but it does not explain how basins originate.
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Can some one explain how kids' birthday parties became mandatory and, frequently, icky?
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Can you explain how you got the idea?
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Behe contends that evolutionists never try to explain how complex systems might have arisen through incremental changes.
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Hilary explains how she deals with on-air technical problems.
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He listens to an oldies radio station while explaining how to parallel park.
why
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This explains why the extent of the use of crack is not necessarily indicated by the scale of seizures.
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He was brilliant, with a tendency to arrogance; perhaps that explained why he got along so well with Lleland.
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This explains why one finds contrary demands being made by groups in different places.
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This explains why heads of governments, the police and the Establishment in general are such popular targets for the protesters' attacks.
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The lack of consensus explains why area politicians have failed to reach an acceptable solution.
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In this section we explain why they can, and list some of the information sources you might want to use.
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Here I should explain why over a hundred thousand miners were striking against the federal courts.
■ NOUN
difference
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To explain the difference between the two structures, they are placed in a realistic context.
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This may explain the major difference between men and women when it comes to reading and reacting to others.
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Economists are more concerned to find similarities among firms than to explain the differences .
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Gordon explained the difference between mere literacy and critical reading.
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As a result, there has been a recent proliferation of studies seeking to explain international differences in strike activity.
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And these differences in structure partially explain differences in attitudes found among the nations.
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Other risk factors, not related to ethnicity, probably explain remaining differences between Maori and non-Maori children.
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Political socialization research attempts to explain how such differences in political beliefs can occur.
fact
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Given the mobility constraints, is the cooperation of labour not better explained by the fact that employees have little alternative?
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The girls explain the facts of life to him.
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Sadly, as I shall explain , the facts do not bear out the interpretation given to them by the Foreign Secretary.
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In addition, it explains various detailed observational facts which are incompatible with the older Newtonian scheme.
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This phenomenon is explained by the fact that elements can be introduced into mental models without being explicitly mentioned.
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But this sort of secrecy can often produce more anxiety than if parents explain the facts clearly and simply.
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There's no other way to explain the fact that he's been allowed to buy that land so cheaply.
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To explain the most important facts about drugs. 2.
reason
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He did not apparently find it necessary to explain the reasons for this sexist-sounding conclusion.
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The men of long ago wondered why this should be, and they told stories to explain the reason .
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There have been several attempts to explain the reasons for the strong seismic reflections from such zones.
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If this has not been the case, it will be up to the individuals to explain the reasons behind this.
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No need to explain one's reasons for suddenly looking out of the window.
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When asked by Geoffrey Fisher to explain his reasons , he found that he had difficulty in finding a reason.
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A centre wishing to offer any of these modules in the Session 1991/92 should write, explaining the reasons , to.
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If the doctor overspends, he or she may be asked to explain the medical reasons for this to another doctor.
theory
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Life-history theory could readily explain dwarfing if juvenile, but not adult, male mortality were large.
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A major purpose of monetary theory is to explain the behavior of real income and prices.
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Generally, different theories are used to explain widely different phenomena, from the forces in the atom to gravity.
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Such a step allows development of theory which can explain social transformation in terms of unitary types of activity. 2.
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Many theories purport to explain growth in terms of a single cause, economic, political or organisational.
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This theory explains our ability to refer using names in terms of our ability to refer using definite descriptions.
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Merton's model or theory does not adequately explain all types of criminal behaviour.
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There is a fashionable theory to explain this.
■ VERB
ask
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A teacher wrote to me recently asking if I could explain her inspection feedback.
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Ahab talks to this head and asks it to explain the mystery of the universe.
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Bob asks the questions then explains how the youngsters maintain his enthusiasm.
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More advanced students might be asked to read and explain directions.
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I asked him to explain his pricing policy.
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Zall was also asked to explain why his group should be a party to the litigation in the first place.
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You should never be afraid to ask the physiotherapist to explain what she is doing.
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I asked him to explain the voting rules again.
attempt
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Be that as it may, I shall attempt to explain the spiritual aspect in my own terms.
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It is not deconstructive in the sense that it attempts to explain those contradictions via a coherent theory.
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Freud's theory is attempting to explain how religious rituals and beliefs started in human cultures in the first instance.
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Kass and his colleagues presented this important bit of information without attempting to explain it.
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The study not only describes changes in central-local relationships but it also attempts to explain them.
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Once again I attempted to explain .
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This is a clear example of attempting to explain an unknown phenomenon by means of models based on known phenomena.
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In such a climate, it is ambitious to attempt to explain scientific problems in simple terms.
help
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Geography was important because it would help the evolutionist to explain how populations were able to migrate and adapt to new locations.
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That may help explain why alternative keyboards remain something of a novelty in the workplace.
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This weaved-up mystery lies at the heart of the Metamorphoses and helps to explain its extraordinary continuing appeal.
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The drawings help explain what to do. 11 Breeding flour beetles Flour beetles live in and feed on stored flour.
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Yet this relationship was deeply problematic, which helps to explain the diversity of opinion and the contradictions within the phenomenon.
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This ambiguity of language helps to explain why so many interpretations of Wordsworth's philosophy and religion were able to arise.
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The origins are important because they help explain a number of otherwise curious features of the societies.
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The degree to which characteristics and local and national factors help explain the differing degree of unemployment will be investigated.
try
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I have tried to explain that in Claudia's case memory is particularly treacherous, but Letterman likes the idea of ambiguity.
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I remember my mom trying to explain it to me.
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I try to explain that Rainbow Rosenbloom has almost nothing but a few genes in common with Anya's faithless Gittel.
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At last, but how no one ever tried to explain , two children were born to this shapeless nothingness.
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How does a man even try to explain that he is falling apart because he doesn't kill people any more?
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I try to explain this to Professor Sano, working hard to keep back the tears.
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I tried my hardest to explain how it had come about.
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He tried to explain it to her.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
take a bit of doing/explaining etc
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It took a bit of doing - for instance, the disposal site had to check out 100 percent.
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It took a bit of explaining.
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That's going to take a bit of explaining.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Can you explain what the poem means?
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Could you explain the rules of the game to me, please?
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Doctors are unable to explain why the disease spread so quickly.
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I don't have time to explain now - just come with me quickly!
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If you don't get the joke, I'll explain it to you later.
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It's not so complicated - let me explain .
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It was difficult explaining to the children why their father was leaving home.
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Let me show you - it's too difficult to explain .
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Sarah explained that she hadn't been feeling well recently.
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She couldn't sleep last night, which explains why she was in such a bad mood this morning.
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She just doesn't like me. How else can you explain her behaviour?
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The doctor explained how the clinic operates.
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We listened carefully while Pam explained the process.
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We were all puzzled: what could explain his sudden change of mind?
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But the dynamics of his thinking have never been easy to explain .
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I had nothing in my vocabulary of human behavior to explain him.
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I would prefer the teacher to explain things rather than the computer.
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Shakespeare took the time to explain this; director Jocelyn Moorhouse does not.
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The problem may explain why Brady has not made more of an impact since exploding on the scene three years ago.
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The reason this requires explaining is that young women are different from other human beings in this respect.
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This explains why the extent of the use of crack is not necessarily indicated by the scale of seizures.
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This may, inpart, explain why current approaches seem so distant from those applied to other periods of the past.