What's the difference between explicit and implicit meaning?

Explicit = obvious meaning. Implicit = unobvious meaning. So if something was explicit in a text, it means that the information is clearly stated for you. E.g. Josh was wearing a blue, woolly hat yesterday morning. The colour of his hat is explicit information that we have learnt. However, implicit information is what we are not told but we can guess. E.g. Josh was wearing a blue, woolly hat yesterday morning. We could guess that it was cold yesterday morning because Josh is wearing a blue, woolly hat. The sentence doesn't tell us this information directly, but we know that when it's cold, people often wear warm, woolly hats. So explicit is something we KNOW, implicit is something that is SUGGESTED.

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Answered by Sophie H. English tutor

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