elaborate

An elaborate explanation or description is one that goes into great detail and includes many examples. A movie review might be an example of something elaborate.

When we say that someone's speech was elaborate, we often mean that it was full of complicated ideas and words, but not necessarily hard to understand. We also use the word elaborate to describe something like a wedding reception – if you're planning a big, fancy event with lots of decorations and entertainment, you might call it an elaborate celebration. If a story has many twists and turns, we might say that it's an elaborate plot. In general, elaborate means including plenty of details or features, but not necessarily making something more complicated than it needs to be.