elucidare

Elucidare is a Latin verb meaning to make clear, to explain, or to elucidate. It is used in classical and medieval Latin to indicate the act of clarifying the sense of a text, argument, or phenomenon.

As a first-conjugation verb, elucidāre takes the usual principal parts: elucidō, elucidāre, elucidāvī, elucidātum. In use, it is employed with a direct object referring to the matter or passage to be clarified, and it can introduce explanations, commentaries, or demonstrations that illuminate a point or text.

The term is the source of the English verb elucidate, and it shares with related words the general sense of making something comprehensible. In Latin, elucidare appears in scholarly, theological, and literary contexts where an author seeks to expose meanings, resolve ambiguities, or render arguments more transparent.

In modern usage, elucidare survives chiefly as a historical or scholarly form within Latin texts. The corresponding English verb elucidate is common in many disciplines, where it denotes the act of explaining or clarifying complex ideas, arguments, or data. See also elucidation and clarification for related concepts.