explainer

noun

ex·plain·er ik-ˈsplā-nər

plural explainers

: a person or thing that explains something: such as

: a person who makes something understandable

Modern day presidents must be good explainers of a complex world …—

Jonathan Alter et al.

: an article, podcast, graphic, etc., that explains something complex or not widely understood : an in-depth treatment of a topic

Each half-hour episode contained a big explainer of a complicated issue. The list of topics sounds like the arcane scraps from the cutting-room floor of most newsrooms—the amount of hidden sugar in food, civil forfeiture, the false hopes of lotteries, the failure of the American government to safeguard people who served as interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan.—

David Carr

Inside, the issue contains a long explainer piece on how the subprime mess came to be and how it wreaked havoc on Citi, Wall Street and especially Merrill.—

Yvette Kantrow

Examples of explainer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web On the social media front, Variety’s head of social Rachel Seo was nominated for best use of social media to enhance and/or cover a story by a journalist tied to an organization for an explainer on what actors could and couldn’t do during the SAG-AFTRA strike. —

Selena Kuznikov, Variety, 9 May 2024 Covering topics that range from dreams and dopamine to meditation and nutrition, he is positioned as an all-around expert who can distill some of the most complex questions in science into accessible explainers for the curious. —

Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 8 May 2024 The visualizations, available on YouTube, can be viewed as explainer videos or as 360-degree videos that allow the viewer to put themselves at the center of it all. —

Kerry Breen, CBS News, 7 May 2024 What to Know About Our Coverage of the Trump Trial Expect live updates from court, daily takeaways, explainers and analysis. —

William K. Rashbaum, New York Times, 6 May 2024 Sarah Bradley has been writing health content since 2017—everything from product roundups and illness FAQs to nutrition explainers and the dish on diet trends. —

Lacey Muinos, Verywell Health, 3 May 2024 For more detail on each look, make sure to read our explainer. —

PCMAG, 30 Apr. 2024 What to Know About Our Coverage of the Trump Trial Expect live updates from the courtroom, daily takeaways, explainers and analysis. —

Michael Rothfeld, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2024 David Nield is a freelance contributor at Popular Science, producing how to guides and explainers for the DIY section on everything from improving your smartphone photos to boosting the security of your laptop. —

David Nield, Popular Science, 25 Apr. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'explainer.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.