self-explanatory
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of self-explanatory
First recorded in 1895–1900
Vocabulary lists containing self-explanatory
Obvious
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Obvious
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The phrase is self-explanatory, but Ms. Farr is insistent, so in her reading the woman polishes silver “until it gleamed.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
They played well enough for Martin O'Neill so the answer is self-explanatory.
From BBC • Jan. 3, 2026
Long Beach officials settled on the self-explanatory “Backyard Builders Program,” hoping a partial solution to a dearth of affordable housing lies in the unused spaces of city homeowners’ property.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 19, 2024
Yet the collapse in Baltimore on Tuesday might have been avoided, some of the engineers said, if the piers were adequately equipped with blocking devices with a self-explanatory name: fenders.
From New York Times • Mar. 26, 2024
“There’s a bunch of purple paintbrushes,” he said, pointing at flowers that are pretty self-explanatory, I should think.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
