CS Knowledge Base

From Middle French implicite, from Latin implicitus, past participle of implico (“to infold, involve, entangle”); see implicate.

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈplɪsɪt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪsɪt

implicit (not comparable)

1. Suggested indirectly, without being directly expressed.

   Poets often leave behind an implicit message within their words.

   • 1983, Ronald Reagan, Proclamation 5018:

     The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the Founding Fathers' abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the individual, rights which they found implicit in the Bible's teachings of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual.

2. Contained in the essential nature of something but not openly shown.
3. Having no reservations or doubts; unquestioning or unconditional; usually said of faith or trust.
   • 1765, anonymous author, Considerations on Behalf of the Colonists:

     He is not only a zealous advocate for pusilanimous and passive obedience, but for the most implicit faith in the dictatorial mandates of power.

4. (obsolete) entangled, twisted together.
   • 1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     In his deep fleece […] I cling implicit.

• (implied indirectly): implied, tacit, unspoken
• (contained in the essential nature): inherent, intrinsic
• (having no reservations): unconditional, unquestioning

• explicit

• implicate
• implication
• implicative
• imply

• “implicit”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “implicit”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Borrowed from French implicite, from Latin implicitus.

implicit m or n (feminine singular implicită, masculine plural impliciți, feminine/neuter plural implicite)

1. tacit