expensive

[ik-spen-siv]

adjective

entailing great expense; very high-priced; costly: an expensive party.

Origin of expensive

First recorded in 1620–30; expense + -ive

Related formsex·pen·sive·ly, adverbex·pen·sive·ness, nounqua·si-ex·pen·sive, adjectivequa·si-ex·pen·sive·ly, adverb

Can be confusedexpansive expensive (see synonym study at the current entry)

Synonyms for expensive

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.

Antonyms for expensive

cheap, low-priced.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for expensiveness

Historical Examples of expensiveness

This in some measure banished luxury and expensiveness from these feasts.
The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates
Xenophon
Tournaments were also interdicted on account of their expensiveness.
The History of Chivalry, Volume I (of 2)
Charles Mills
A diagram at once shows its awkwardness, expensiveness, and undesirability.
Dramatic Technique
George Pierce Baker
There was therefore no basis for a growth of taste in disregard of expensiveness.
The Theory of the Leisure Class
Thorstein Veblen
Another dubious point is Oswald's argument in the first act as to the expensiveness of marriage as compared with free union.
Ghosts
Henrik Ibsen

British Dictionary definitions for expensiveness

expensive

adjective

high-priced; costly; dear

Derived Formsexpensively, adverbexpensiveness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for expensiveness

expensive

adj.

1620s, "given to profuse expenditure," from expense (n.) + -ive. Meaning "costly" is from 1630s. Earlier was expenseful (c.1600). Expenseless was in use mid-17c.-18c., but there seems nothing now to which it applies, and the dictionaries label it "obsolete."