If you’re reading a document and hit text you don’t fully understand, Explain helps you quickly understand it - without leaving Word.
Use Explain to understand selected text
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Select a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph in your document.
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Choose Explain from the floating toolbar that appears near your selection or from right‑click menu.
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Review the explanation shown in Copilot chat.
That’s it - You get a clear, contextual explanation while staying in your reading flow.
What Explain does (and when it helps most)
Explain is designed for moments when content feels unclear, technical, or unfamiliar. It works best when you want quick clarity without switching apps. It can explain selections such as:
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Single words or incomplete terms
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Acronyms or abbreviations
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Sentences or full paragraphs
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Larger selections, including entire sections
The explanation is generated based on:
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The selected text
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The surrounding document context
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Accurate general knowledge, when needed
This helps ensure explanations are relevant to this document, not generic definitions.
Where you can use Explain
Word Viewing mode
It's available from:
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The floating toolbar that appears after text selection
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The right‑click context menu
The explanation always appears as a single response in Copilot chat.
