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?
Related Words
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
- expensively adverb
- expensiveness noun
- quasi-expensive adjective
- quasi-expensively adverb
Etymology
Origin of expensive
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.
Publix officials said that while some consumers believe it might be more expensive, its value proposition is just as competitive once its sales and store experience are factored in.
He says there's lots of information out there about what to pack and stresses that good-quality waterproof clothing doesn't have to be expensive.
From BBC
The lavish presents - all clearly marked with designer labels - piled up and decorated like a Christmas tree, the expensive trips to five-star resorts around the world, the extravagant wedding parties that closed roads to traffic.
From BBC
But these are expensive and limited in numbers.
From BBC
The WSJ report noted that customers increasingly want less expensive and more efficient processors for these sorts of workloads.
From MarketWatch
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.
