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expressive
[ ik-spres-iv ]
adjective
- full of expression; meaningful:
an expressive shrug.
- serving to express; indicative of power to express:
a look expressive of gratitude.
- of, relating to, or concerned with expression:
Dance is a highly expressive art.
- Sociology. (of a crowd or group) engaging in nonpurposeful activity of an expressive and often rhythmic nature, as weeping, dancing, or shouting. Compare active ( def 15 ), orgiastic ( def 3 ).
- Linguistics. of or relating to forms in which sounds denote a semantic field directly and nonarbitrarily, through sound symbolism based, to some degree, on synesthesia, as observable in onomatopoeia, rhyming and gradational compounds, and emotionally charged words such as hypocoristics and pejoratives.
expressive
/ ɪkˈsprɛsɪv /
adjective
- of, involving, or full of expression
- postpositivefoll byof indicative or suggestive (of)
a look expressive of love
- having a particular meaning, feeling, or force; significant
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Derived Forms
- exˈpressiveness, noun
- exˈpressively, adverb
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Other Words From
- ex·pressive·ly adverb
- ex·pressive·ness noun
- anti·ex·pressive adjective
- anti·ex·pressive·ly adverb
- anti·ex·pressive·ness noun
- nonex·pressive adjective
- nonex·pressive·ly adverb
- nonex·pressive·ness noun
- over·ex·pressive adjective
- over·ex·pressive·ly adverb
- over·ex·pressive·ness noun
- preex·pressive adjective
- super·ex·pressive adjective
- super·ex·pressive·ly adverb
- super·ex·pressive·ness noun
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Word History and Origins
Origin of expressive1
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Synonym Study
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Example Sentences
The instrumental view of culture has it wrong, she argues, and should be replaced with what she calls an “expressive view.”
Robin Williams, as I knew him, was warm, gentle, expressive, nurturing, and brilliant.
With me, finding out how expressive people could be in music really saved me.
Bitcoin serves a purpose that is at once expressive and purposeful.
He combines fabrics and textures and prints in a very expressive way.
The rightly cultivated expressive voice is the man—speaking.
Mrs. Kaye's expressive eyes, which had dwelt on Isabel with flattering attention, fell to the tip of her cigarette.
The circle around did not exactly contradict him, but exhibited expressive appearances of incredulity.
The two most pleasing, expressive, and powerful single instruments of music are the human voice and the violin.
He was also the inventor of "Poikilorgue," an expressive organ, which was the origin of the harmonium.
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