explanation

In science, an attempt to make clear the cause of any natural event by reference to physical laws and to observations.

The extent to which any explanation can be said to be true is one of the chief concerns of philosophy, partly because observations may be wrongly interpreted, partly because explanations should help us predict how nature will behave. Although it may be reasonable to expect that a physical law will hold in the future, that expectation is problematic in that it relies on induction, a much criticized feature of human thought; in fact no explanation, however ‘scientific’, can be held to be true for all time, and thus the difference between a scientific and a common-sense explanation remains the subject of intense philosophical debate.

explanation

Means of communication that involves the straightforward communication of knowledge or information to others, for example showing a friend how to play an unfamiliar card game, or giving directions. Narration is a less factual explanation or account.