expensive
Syllables: ex·pen·sive/ɪkˈspɛn.sɪv/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
pin pen merger/ɪkˈspɪn.sɪv/
expensive adjective: having a high price or cost.
Adjective
expensive (comparative more expensive, superlative most expensive)
- Having a high price or cost.
- 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.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
- In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.2013 June 22, “The G8 summit: T time”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Jul 2013
- Synonyms:
- costly, high-priced, pricey, dear
- Antonyms:
- cheap, inexpensive, low-priced
- Taking a lot of system time or resources.
- an unnecessarily expensive choice of algorithm
- Given to expending a lot of money; profligate, lavish.
- […] And that he looked into his own affairs, and underſtood them; That he had, when abroad, been very expenſive; and contracted a large debt (for he made no ſecret of his affairs); […]1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter IV. Miſs Clarissa Harlowe, To Miſs Howe.”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume I, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by A[ndrew]...
- […] thus naturally generous and expenſive, he ſquandered away his money, and made a moſt ſplendid appearance upon the receipt of his quarterly appointment; […]1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter XXV, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 186
- Having a high economy rate.
- Antonyms:
- economical
expensive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
expensive in Hindi
- having a high price or cost
- महँगा mahaṅgā, बहुमूल्य bahumūlya, क़ीमती qīmtī
expensive in Tamil
- having a high price or cost
- விலையுயர்ந்த vilaiyuyarnta
expensive in Marathi
- having a high price or cost
- महाग mahāg
expensive in Urdu
- having a high price or cost
- مَہَن٘گا mahaṅgā, قِیمْتی qīmtī
More languagesFewer languages
- expensive in Bengali
- ব্যয়বহুল bêẏbohul
- expensive in Telugu
- ఖరీదైన kharīdaina
- expensive in Malayalam
- ചെലവേറിയ celavēṟiya
- expensive in Kannada
- ಬೆಲೆಬಾಳುವ, ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಬೆಲೆಯ, ತಲೆಬೆಲೆ, ಅಧಿಕಬೆಲೆಯ
- expensive in Punjabi
- ਮਹਿੰਗਾ mahiṅgā
- expensive in Gujarati
- મોંઘું moṅghũ
- expensive in Odia
- ମହଙ୍ଗା mahaṅgā
- expensive in Sanskrit
- बहुमूल्य bahumūlya, महार्घ mahārgha
- expensive in Sinhala
- ගණං gaṇaṁ
- expensive in Assamese
- দামী dami, মহঙা mohoṅa
- expensive in Nepali
- महँगो mahãgo, बहुमुल्य bahumulya
- expensive in Pashto
- ګران grân, قيمته qimáta
- expensive in Tagalog
- mahal
- expensive in Arabic
- غَالٍ ḡālin, الْغَالِي al-ḡālī, مُكَلَّف mukallaf
- expensive in Malay
- mahal
- expensive in Indonesian
- mahal
- expensive in Thai
- แพง pɛɛng
- expensive in Vietnamese
- đắt, đắt tiền, mắc
- expensive in Myanmar
- ရှား hra:, ဈေးကြီး jhe:kri:, ကြေးကြီး kre:kri:, အဖိုးကြီး a.hpui:kri:
- Sindhi
- مَهانگو mahā̃go, महांगो
- Kashmiri
- درٛۆگ drog
Examples of expensive in a sentence
- Walking around with such an expensive watch is asking to be mugged.
- The initial design of the park was rejected for being too expensive.
- In the end, the tickets didn't turn out so very expensive.
Synonyms of expensive
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of expensive
| comparative | more expensive |
|---|---|
| superlative | most expensive |
| alternative form (archaic) | expencive |
Origin of expensive
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.
Words formed from expensive
Phrases with expensive
Words that rhyme with expensive
Questions about expensive
- What does expensive mean?
- Expensive means having a high price or cost.
- What is expensive in Hindi?
- Expensive in Hindi is महँगा (mahaṅgā), बहुमूल्य (bahumūlya), क़ीमती (qīmtī). See Expensive meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is expensive?
- Expensive is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce expensive?
- Expensive is pronounced /ɪkˈspɛn.sɪv/.
Words near expensive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: expensive (page history and authors); expensive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ମହଙ୍ଗା (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-expensive.ogg, En-uk-expensive.ogg.
Cite this entry: “expensive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/expensive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.