implicit

Suggested indirectly, without being directly expressed.

Adjective

  1. Suggested indirectly, without being directly expressed.
    • Poets often leave behind an implicit message within their words.
    • 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...
  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.
    • He is not only a zealous advocate for pusilanimous and passive obedience, but for the most implicit faith in the dictatorial mandates of power. - 1765, anonymous author, Considerations on Behalf of the Colonists:
  4. entangled, twisted together.
    • In his deep fleece […] I cling implicit. - 1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

Origin

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

Synonyms

implied tacit unspoken inherent intrinsic unconditional unquestioning

Antonyms

explicit

Related

implicate implication implicative imply

Derived

implicit cognition implicit function implicitization implicitly implicit modeling implicitness implicity unimplicit