Elaborate means to add more detail or information to make something clearer and more complete. When a teacher asks you to elaborate on your answer, she wants you to explain your thinking more fully. If you say “The experiment failed,” and she responds, “Can you elaborate?” she's asking you to describe what went wrong and why.

The word can also mean detailed and complicated, often in an impressive way. An elaborate birthday cake might have multiple layers, intricate frosting designs, and decorative flowers. An elaborate plan involves many carefully arranged steps and details.

Think of elaborate as the opposite of simple or brief. A simple drawing of a house shows four walls and a roof. An elaborate drawing includes windows with curtains, bricks on the chimney, flowers in the garden, and shadows on the ground. Both drawings show a house, but the elaborate one gives you much more to look at and think about.

When you're asked to elaborate, you're being invited to expand your ideas by adding examples, explaining your reasoning, or describing what you observed. This transforms a basic answer into an elaborate response that helps others really understand what you mean.