Mansplaining
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The act of condescendingly explaining something, particularly by a man to a woman, in order to appear knowledgeable, or from a mistaken presumption that she has an inferior understanding of the topic. derogatory, slang, uncountable
"Mansplaining isn't just the act of explaining while male, of course; many men manage to explain things every day without in the least insulting their listeners... Mansplaining is when a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate "facts" about something you know a hell of a lot more about than he does."
- 1 present participle and gerund of mansplain form-of, gerund, participle, present
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Mansplaining isn't just the act of explaining while male, of course; many men manage to explain things every day without in the least insulting their listeners... Mansplaining is when a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate "facts" about something you know a hell of a lot more about than he does."
Etymology
Blend of man + explaining, or from mansplain + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "mansplaining"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.