From Richard Nordquist,
Your Guide to Grammar & Composition.
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Definition:

A sentence that makes a statement.

Etymology:

From the Latin, "to make clear"

Examples and Observations:

• "A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain."
  (Mark Twain)



• "There isn't any thought or idea that can't be expressed in a fairly simple declarative sentence, or in a series of fairly simple declarative sentences."
  (E.B. White, "Fro-Joy")



• "My guess might be excellent or it might be crummy, but Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children dippy enough to make guesses in front of a district attorney, an assistant district attorney, and a stenographer."
  (Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon)



• "I don't especially like the way I look sometimes, but I never met a man since I was 14 that didn't want to give me an argument about it."
  (Lana Turner as Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice)



• "What makes me special is I'm my own man. When I started out I said there were things I'd do and things I wouldn't do. A lot of guys start out like that, and a lot of them sell out along the way. But the more who fall, the easier it gets... My collar may be a little frayed, and maybe I need a shoeshine. But nobody's got a mortgage on my soul. I own it. Free and clear."
  (Harry Lovecraft, Cast a Deadly Spell)



• "I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land."
  (Jon Stewart)



• "Fake news executives are nicer than real news executives, though real news executives are funnier than fake news executives. They don’t know they’re being funny."
  (Stephen Colbert)

Pronunciation: di-KLAR-i-tiv