explain vs stymie

explain

verb
  • To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of. 

  • To give a valid excuse for past behavior. 

  • To make something plain or intelligible. 

stymie

verb
  • To thwart or stump; to cause to fail or to leave hopelessly puzzled, confused, or stuck. 

  • To bring into the position of, or impede by, a stymie. 

noun
  • A situation where an opponent's ball is directly in the way of one's own ball and the hole, on the putting green (abolished 1952). 

  • An obstacle or obstruction. 

How often have the words explain and stymie occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )