explicature

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UK/ɛkˈsplɪkətʃə/UK/ɪkˈsplɪkətʃə/UK/ˈɛksplɪkətʃə/US/ɛkˈsplɪkət͡ʃɚ/

noun

Something explicitly expressed in an utterance, as opposed to what is implicit.

First used 20th c.Scrabble 22

Meanings

nounexplicature (countable and uncountable, plural explicatures)

plural explicatures

  1. countableuncountablehuman sciencesSomething explicitly expressed in an utterance, as opposed to what is implicit.First known use 20th c.

    In relevance theory terms, he must construct a hypothesis about the explicit content of Ally's utterance;that is, he mustrely upon both the words she uses in this utterance and an inferencing process to construct an explicature.

    2012, Jodie Clark, Language, Sex and Social Structure
    1 more example

    If the speaker was your flat-mate and you had a habit of borrowing her property without permission, she might be asking you if you'd 'borrowed' the book she owned (explicature) and the utterance might be taken as a demand for its return.

    2013, Peter Grundy, Doing Pragmatics, page 136

Origin

Translations

Polish eksplikatura
  • eksplikaturaTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

explicature. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/explicature

MLA

“explicature.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/explicature. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “explicature,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/explicature.

Source: explicature on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.