Elaborate Meaning
/ɪˈlæb.(ə.)ɹət/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjComplex, detailed, or sophisticated.
adjIntricate, fancy, flashy, or showy.
Sentence Examples
Let's take time out to elaborate a strategy.
Well, I clean the rooms, do the laundry, or cook an elaborate supper.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chef prepared an ____ meal with intricate decorations and multiple courses.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Let's take time out to ____ a strategy.
Word Origin & History
1575, from Late Latin ēlabōrātus (“worked out”), past participle of ēlabōrō (“to work out”), from ē- (“out, forth, fully”) + labor (“work, toil, exertion”). More at e-, labour.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door."
— 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
"[…] by the time of the subsequent coronation, when the Prussian king put the crown on his own head in child-like belief of the obsolete doctrine called divine right, the untiring statesman had elaborated his scheme of reform."
— 1871, “Bismarck”, in All the Year Round, volume 5, page 129:
"The notion of blood purity was first elaborated in Europe, where it was used to separate Old Christians from Spain’s New Christians—women and men of Jewish and Muslim origin whose ancestors had converted to Christianity."
— 2009, Irene Silverblatt, “Foreword”, in Andrew B. Fisher, Matthew D. O'hara, editors, Imperial Subjects: Race and Identity in Colonial Latin America, page xi:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chef prepared an ____ meal with intricate decorations and multiple courses.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Let's take time out to ____ a strategy.