expensive
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does expensive mean? Expensive means something is high priced or costs a lot of money. Expensive is most often applied to items with very high prices, such as luxury cars. But it can also be used to describe things whose price or cost is simply high compared to others. Example: I like it, but it’s just too expensive. Do you have any lower-priced models?
Synonym Usage
Expensive, costly, dear, high-priced apply to something that is high in price. Expensive is applied to whatever entails considerable expense; it suggests a price more than the average person would normally be able to pay or a price paid only for something special: an expensive automobile. Costly implies that the price is a large sum, usually because of the fineness, preciousness, etc., of the object: a costly jewel. Dear is commonly applied in England to something that is selling beyond its usual or just price. In the U. S., high-priced is the usual equivalent.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of expensive
Explanation
The adjective expensive means high in price, like the expensive basketball sneakers you had to work all summer to save up enough money to buy. Expensive comes from the 1620s, when it meant "given to profuse expenditure." Back then, it was the people doing the buying who got called "expensive." Now it's the costly things they buy or take part in. For example, sailing is an expensive hobby. If someone tells you, "I have expensive taste," it means that person likes things that cost a lot of money, whether they are purchased or just admired from the shop window.
Vocabulary lists containing expensive
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Porsche, facing dramatic sales declines in China, announced its own plan earlier this month to bolster its business by offering more expensive vehicles rather than chasing volume.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
"Over time, new development or other land use changes may occur within parts of the former corridor, making it progressively more difficult or expensive to deliver the same highway alignment in the future," it said.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
Formula 1 is an expensive pursuit and far wealthier nations have already seen their ambitions backfire.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Lighter clothes were more expensive and required frequent professional cleaning, so while my everyday trousers and waistcoat looked rather somber in the daylight, they made suitable evening wear.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
