Meanings
plural explicatures
- 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 Structure1 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
From explicate + -ure, after implicature.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Polish eksplikatura
- eksplikaturaTranslations
Cite this entry
explicature. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/explicature
“explicature.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/explicature. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “explicature,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/explicature.
Source: explicature on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.