Talk:Azula/@comment-5123212-20110616213518/@comment-3973838-20110702141026

Actually, the synonyms "justify" and "explain" are a unique case. They can have the same meanings or they can have slightly different meanings, depending on which definition is intended. Here's what I mean:

Justify: 1. make something seem reasonable 3. explain something

Explain: 1. give details about something 2. clarify meaning of something 4. justify behavior

As you can see, the definitions of "explain" and "justify" all depend on how the words are used in a sentence. I could "explain" how to bake a cake (definition 1 of "explain"), but I could also "explain" why I was late (in this case, probably definition 4 of "explain": attempting to justify behavior). I hope that clarifies my previous post. You're correct in that "justify" and "explain" can be exact synonyms; however, they aren't always exact synonyms. And in the context of the nony's post, he/she clearly meant definition 1 of "justify", and definition 1 or 2 of "explain".