expensive

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word expensive. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word expensive, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say expensive in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word expensive you have here. The definition of the word expensive will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofexpensive, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

A cask for transporting californium-252. Californium-252 is brutally expensive, costing ~$27 million per gram.

From Latin *expēnsīvus, from expendō (“to weigh out (money), to pay out”) (whence English expend). By surface analysis, expense +‎ -ive. In the sense of "high-priced" has largely displaced dear.

Pronunciation

Adjective

expensive (comparative more expensive or (nonstandard or humorous) expensiver, superlative most expensive or (nonstandard or humorous) expensivest)

  1. Having a high price or cost.
    Synonyms: costly, high-priced, pricey, dear; see also Thesaurus:expensive
    Antonyms: cheap, inexpensive, low-priced
    • 2006, Edwin Black, “The Plan Against Oil”, in Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives, New York: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 2:
      If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.
    • 2013 June 22, “The G8 summit: T time”, in The Economist‎, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2013-07-09:
      In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.
  2. (computing) Taking a lot of system time or resources.
    an unnecessarily expensive choice of algorithm
  3. (obsolete) Given to expending a lot of money; profligate, lavish.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ “expensive”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia