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.
It features 26 paintings, oil sketches and drawings, these last done in Conté crayon, a medium made from powdered graphite and carbon black that allowed deeper blacks and more expressive tonal contrasts.
This altarpiece marks the Italian artist coming into his own at the end of the Renaissance, its vision of Christ after his crucifixion rendered in an expressive, enigmatic style.
His evocative depictions of forest scenes are stunning in their own right, hypnotically expressive and made to tickle your id, unearthing deeply rooted primal sensations.
But he didn’t have the expressive variety to make the horror of Hercules’ death scene match lines like “Along my feverish veins, like liquid fire, the subtle poison hastes.”
The rest of his talk was the same: rough but expressive.
From Literature
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.
