Definition of "eclaircissement" [e•clair•cisse•ment]

• The clearing up of anything which is obscure or not easily understood; an explanation. (noun)

Gnu Collaboartive International Dictionary of English: licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

• "Much which it aspired to do, and did but imperfectly or mistakenly, was accomplished in what is called the eclaircissement of the eighteenth century, or in our own generation; and what really belongs to the rival of the fifteenth century is but the leading instinct, the curiosity, the initiatory idea."
• "'eclaircissement' of the situation, and of his lineaments on which suffering had already set their stamp."
• "Such a state of misunderstanding is, in fact, worse than a downright quarrel; — the latter may be explained or apologized for, or become the subject of mediation; but in such a case as the former, an eclaircissement is as unlikely to take place as a general engagement between two armies which have taken up strong defensive positions on both sides."