serving or intended to serve as an explanation
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
ex•plan•a•to•ry /ɪkˈsplænəˌtɔri/USA pronunciation
adj.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- serving to explain: an explanatory footnote.
ex•plan•a•to•ry
(ik splan′ə tôr′ē, -tōr′ē),USA pronunciation adj.
ex•plan′a•to′ri•ly, ex•plan′a•tive•ly, adv.
- serving to explain:an explanatory footnote.
- Late Latin explānātōrius. See explain, -tory1
- 1610–20
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'explanatory' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
-atory
- Masorah
- account
- annotate
- annotated
- annotation
- appendix
- comment
- commentary
- commentate
- declarative
- demonstrative
- envoy
- essayistic
- exegetic
- explicative
- exposition
- expository
- figure
- footnote
- gloss
- gloze
- hermeneutic
- illustrative
- interpretive
- legend
- liner note
- note
- over
- parenthesis
- rubric
- schedule
- scholium
- self
- self-evident
- self-explanatory
- subtitle
- synonymy