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
List 1
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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.
We’re navigating historically expensive housing, student debt, inflation, stagnant entry-level wages and a social landscape with more entertainment options than previous generations had.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Mold can pose health risks for some groups of people, and is expensive to remediate.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Even if cubicles were slightly more expensive to maintain or consumed more water, this would not necessarily be enough to justify a price difference compared with urinals, she added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
It would be extremely difficult and expensive for the airport to distance itself from the contractor if the project failed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
I was afraid they would be expensive, but they’re mostly under thirty dollars.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
Definitions 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.
