A vocabulary tool that explains academic language in context
Highlight anything confusing and get an instant plain-English explanation or definition, right where you are reading.
Two tools that remove the barriers between you and the text
Two ways to cut through academic complexity. Explain This handles full sentences and paragraphs. Define handles individual words. Both work instantly, in context.
Explain This - Full sections made clear
Highlight any sentence or paragraph, and Explain This breaks it down in plain English. It reads the actual meaning of the text, not just a paraphrase. Useful for dense theory and complex academic arguments.
Define - Instant word-level understanding
Highlight any unfamiliar word and get an instant definition specific to its use. Define gives you the meaning in context, not a generic dictionary entry.
Works across every document you upload
Explain This and Define work across every document type in Tailo, whether it is an uploaded PDF, a saved web page, or a journal article from Source Search.
Built for students who shouldn’t have to Google everything
Every time you stop reading to search for the meaning of a word or look up what a paragraph is saying, you lose your place and your focus. Tailo’s features keep you in the text. Highlight anything you do not understand and get a plain-English explanation or definition on the spot, specific to the context of what you are reading. Clarity, exactly when you need it.
See how it works
Watch Tailo’s Explain feature and Define tool turn complex academic language into plain-English explanations in seconds.
FAQs
From understanding what each tool does to how they work across different documents, here are the questions students ask most.
What is the difference between Explain This and Define?
Explain This is designed for sentences and paragraphs. When you highlight a full section of text and use the Explain feature, Tailo reads the meaning of what is being said and breaks it down in plain English. Define is designed for individual words and terms. When you highlight a single word, Define gives you its definition meaning in the context of your subject and the surrounding text. Both tools work instantly and in context, but they are aimed at different levels of complexity.
Can I use Explain This on an entire document at once?
No. Explain This is designed for selected sections of text, not whole documents. If you want a summary of an entire document, Tailo’s Summaries feature is built for that. Explain This works best for specific sentences or paragraphs where the meaning is unclear or the language is too dense to follow without explanation.
Does it work on documents I've uploaded myself?
Yes. The Explain feature and Define tool work on everything you can read in Tailo, including PDFs you have uploaded, Word documents, presentation files, web pages saved via the Chrome extension, and journal articles found through Source Search. Any text you can highlight in Tailo, you can explain or define.
Will using Explain This replace reading the original text?
No. Explain This is a comprehension tool, not a replacement for engaging with the material. It helps you understand what you are reading so you can engage with it more meaningfully, not skip over it. Using the Explain feature does not generate a new version of the text. It explains what the text is actually saying, which is a different thing entirely. Your analysis and your understanding of the material remain your own.
How do Explain This and Define support students with disabilities?
Explain This and Define help with a wide range of barriers to academic reading – whether that’s getting stuck on individual words, losing focus when you have to stop and look something up, struggling with text that assumes context you don’t have, or finding dense academic language slow to process. Both features work right where you’re reading, so you don’t need to switch tabs, break your flow, or diagnose exactly what’s making a passage hard – just highlight it and get a plain, direct answer.
For more on the specific barriers Tailo supports, see our Who We Help page.
Trusted by students at universities across the UK
Thousands of students are already using Tailo’s Explain and Define features to understand difficult text, from first-year undergraduates to postgraduates managing heavy research loads.
Tailo is used across UK universities and is available to all students, including those accessing support through the Disabled Students’ Allowance.
Francesca
I’ve been doing really well at uni – Tailo helps me focus on what matters.
Chase
I use Talio all the time now for all of my reading, I'm no longer skimming the reading lists in a panic before classes to get a vague idea of what's going on.
Jesse
I was sceptical because I didn’t think that Tailo would change the way that I engaged with information as much as it did. Just try it and you won’t uninstall it.
Megan
I have used ChatGPT to summarise a piece of text before, however Tailo is much better. I prefer how Tailo works and I feel it is more reliable.
