expressive
Americanadjective
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full of expression; meaningful.
an expressive shrug.
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serving to express; indicative of power to express.
a look expressive of gratitude.
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of, relating to, or concerned with expression.
Dance is a highly expressive art.
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Sociology. (of a crowd or group) engaging in nonpurposeful activity of an expressive and often rhythmic nature, as weeping, dancing, or shouting.
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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.
adjective
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of, involving, or full of expression
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indicative or suggestive (of)
a look expressive of love
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having a particular meaning, feeling, or force; significant
Usage
What are other ways to say expressive?
Expressive gestures are full of meaning; expressive looks effectively convey an attitude or feeling. How is expressive different from synonyms meaningful, significant, and suggestive? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Related Words
See eloquent ( def. ).
Other Word Forms
- antiexpressive adjective
- antiexpressively adverb
- antiexpressiveness noun
- expressively adverb
- expressiveness noun
- nonexpressive adjective
- nonexpressively adverb
- nonexpressiveness noun
- overexpressive adjective
- overexpressively adverb
- overexpressiveness noun
- preexpressive adjective
- superexpressive adjective
- superexpressively adverb
- superexpressiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of expressive
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French; express, -ive
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.
He allows the loquacious family to speak to us directly, largely in their own words—they are expressive, sometimes witty and almost always appealing.
The drawings emphasize the allegorical side of Ahab’s monomaniacal hunt, fixing the characters in expressive, statuesque postures.
Others have the expressive tenderness of a Tangerine Dream-scored fantasy like “Risky Business.”
From Los Angeles Times
Completed for Rockwell and Marna Schnabel, the home represents a moment when Gehry translated his experimental vocabulary into a more refined domestic language, producing a residence that’s equally serene and expressive.
From Los Angeles Times
“Perplexity has violated the protections that intellectual property law provides for The Times’s expressive, original journalism,” the Times said in its suit, which was filed in a New York federal court.
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.
