in layman's terms

English

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

in layman's terms

1. (idiomatic) Phrased simply, without jargon.

   Okay, let me explain this in layman's terms.

   • 1973, Robert N[icholas] Giaimo, “Projected Deficit for Fiscal Year 1972”, in District of Columbia Appropriations for 1973, part 1, page 954:

     I would like to get into this $3 million deficit, Doctor. I would like to hear about it in layman's terms rather than accounting terms.

   • 2016 September 15, Dan Lamothe, “After investigation, Navy’s Blue Angels will stop using maneuver that killed a pilot”, in The Washington Post‎:

     “In layman’s terms, he transitioned from the high performance climb to the Split S too low and too fast, and by not deselecting his afterburners during the maneuver, he continued to accelerate,” according to the Navy investigation’s report. “The net effect of these deviations was that the aircraft was simply too low and too fast to avoid impacting the ground.”

   • 2019 March 18, Ken Scar, “From jazz singer to Ph.D.: Clemson marketing professor Oriana Aragón blazed her own path to success”, in Clemson University Relations‎, Media Release, archived from the original on 1 December 2020:

     Aragón started at Clemson in 2016 and is well-known for her research into dimorphous expressions, which in layman’s terms are strangely negative responses to positive events, like crying tears of joy or seeing a puppy so cute you want to squeeze it or a baby so cute you want to smoosh its face.

Synonyms

• simplistically

Hypernyms

• in other words, that is to say; see also Thesaurus:in other words

Translations