See splain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "dialect"
},
"expansion": "",
"name": "etymid"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "explain"
},
"expansion": "Apheretic form of explain",
"name": "apheretic form"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Apheretic form of explain.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "splains",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "splaining",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "splained",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "splained",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "'splain",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "splain (third-person singular simple present splains, present participle splaining, simple past and past participle splained)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "58 42",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "58 42",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English links with manual fragments",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "60 40",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "64 36",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1881, Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus:",
"text": "\"Howsomever, dey 'ranged der 'fairs, en splained der bizness.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1905, R. F. Foster, “In Self Defence”, in The Bookman, volume 21:",
"text": "\"Why, Lor' bless you, I never knew nothing about the rights of them things till you splained them to me yesterday, boss.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1947, John Avery Lomax, Adventures of a Ballad Hunter, page 195:",
"text": "\"Den,\" he confided, \"I 'splained to de release man 'bout lookin' fur a settin'-down job, an' he jes' sorta motioned to de do'.\"",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Apheretic form of explain."
],
"id": "en-splain-en-verb-dIanb7MK",
"links": [
[
"explain",
"explain#English"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, dialectal) Apheretic form of explain."
],
"tags": [
"dialectal",
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-splain.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9a/En-au-splain.ogg/En-au-splain.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/En-au-splain.ogg"
}
],
"word": "splain"
}
{
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "condescendingly"
},
"expansion": "",
"name": "etymid"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Partly from the preceding sense, partly from -splain (after mansplaining).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "splains",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "splaining",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "splained",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "splained",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "'splain",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "splain (third-person singular simple present splains, present participle splaining, simple past and past participle splained)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
10,
16
]
],
"ref": "2019, Jennifer Brown, How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Creating Trust, Cooperation, and Community across Differences, Berrett-Koehler, →ISBN, page 35:",
"text": "Those who splain may have the intent of helping the situation, but the actual impact of their actions can feel condescending or insulting.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To condescendingly explain something, often extensively, especially to someone that knows more about it; for example, to mansplain, whitesplain, etc."
],
"id": "en-splain-en-verb-Vw~g2UVn",
"links": [
[
"condescendingly",
"condescendingly"
],
[
"explain",
"explain"
],
[
"mansplain",
"mansplain"
],
[
"whitesplain",
"whitesplain"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) To condescendingly explain something, often extensively, especially to someone that knows more about it; for example, to mansplain, whitesplain, etc."
],
"tags": [
"slang"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-splain.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9a/En-au-splain.ogg/En-au-splain.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/En-au-splain.ogg"
}
],
"word": "splain"
}
{
"categories": [
"English apheretic forms",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English links with manual fragments",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "dialect"
},
"expansion": "",
"name": "etymid"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "explain"
},
"expansion": "Apheretic form of explain",
"name": "apheretic form"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Apheretic form of explain.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "splains",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "splaining",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "splained",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "splained",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "'splain",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "splain (third-person singular simple present splains, present participle splaining, simple past and past participle splained)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English apheretic forms",
"English dialectal terms",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1881, Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus:",
"text": "\"Howsomever, dey 'ranged der 'fairs, en splained der bizness.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1905, R. F. Foster, “In Self Defence”, in The Bookman, volume 21:",
"text": "\"Why, Lor' bless you, I never knew nothing about the rights of them things till you splained them to me yesterday, boss.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1947, John Avery Lomax, Adventures of a Ballad Hunter, page 195:",
"text": "\"Den,\" he confided, \"I 'splained to de release man 'bout lookin' fur a settin'-down job, an' he jes' sorta motioned to de do'.\"",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Apheretic form of explain."
],
"links": [
[
"explain",
"explain#English"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, dialectal) Apheretic form of explain."
],
"tags": [
"dialectal",
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-splain.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9a/En-au-splain.ogg/En-au-splain.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/En-au-splain.ogg"
}
],
"word": "splain"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English links with manual fragments",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "condescendingly"
},
"expansion": "",
"name": "etymid"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Partly from the preceding sense, partly from -splain (after mansplaining).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "splains",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "splaining",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "splained",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "splained",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "'splain",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "splain (third-person singular simple present splains, present participle splaining, simple past and past participle splained)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English slang",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
10,
16
]
],
"ref": "2019, Jennifer Brown, How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Creating Trust, Cooperation, and Community across Differences, Berrett-Koehler, →ISBN, page 35:",
"text": "Those who splain may have the intent of helping the situation, but the actual impact of their actions can feel condescending or insulting.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To condescendingly explain something, often extensively, especially to someone that knows more about it; for example, to mansplain, whitesplain, etc."
],
"links": [
[
"condescendingly",
"condescendingly"
],
[
"explain",
"explain"
],
[
"mansplain",
"mansplain"
],
[
"whitesplain",
"whitesplain"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) To condescendingly explain something, often extensively, especially to someone that knows more about it; for example, to mansplain, whitesplain, etc."
],
"tags": [
"slang"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-splain.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9a/En-au-splain.ogg/En-au-splain.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/En-au-splain.ogg"
}
],
"word": "splain"
}
Download raw JSONL data for splain meaning in English (4.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.