What does "mansplanation" mean?

A condescending explanation given by a male explainer to a female listener, especially to explain something the listener already knows, presuming that she has an inferior understanding of it because she is a woman.

What is a synonym for "mansplanation"?

Common synonyms include: explanation.

Mansplanation

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
A condescending explanation given by a male explainer to a female listener, especially to explain something the listener already knows, presuming that she has an inferior understanding of it because she is a woman. informal
"Like I said, I can see how a person can take the song as a mansplanation of an issue primarily pertaining to women, but was that Lupe’s intention?"

Synonyms

All synonyms

explanation

Example

More examples

"Like I said, I can see how a person can take the song as a mansplanation of an issue primarily pertaining to women, but was that Lupe’s intention?"

Etymology

From mansplain and explanation.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.