expletive
/ɪkˈspliːtɪv/US/ˈɛksplətɪv/
expletive adjective: serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.
Adjective
expletive (comparative more expletive, superlative most expletive)
- Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.
- No one entered more fully than Shakespeare into the character of this species of poetry, which admits of no expletive imagery, no merely ornamental line.1839, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, volume 3, London: John Murray, →OCLC, page 501
- deprecating being taken for ſerious, or to be underſtood that he meaneth any thing by them; but only that he uſeth them as expletive phraſes ... to plump his ſpeech, and fill up ſentences.1683, Isaac Barrow, The Works of the Learned Isaac Barrow, London: M. Flesher for B. Aylmer, →OCLC, Against vain and raſh Swearing
- Synonyms:
- expletory
- Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers).
Noun
expletive (plural expletives)
- A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath.
- If we don't take advantage of any [expletive] in any way, then it's our loss.
- Synonyms:
- swear word, bad word, oath
- A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.
- A word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning (such as fucking in "there's no fucking way he's gonna get away with it").
- Synonyms:
- intensifier
- An obscene or otherwise offensive interjection (such as shit, fuck, or damn it).
expletive meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
expletive in Tamil
- அசைநிலை, கெட்ட வார்த்தை
expletive in Urdu
- اندراج
expletive in Bengali
- অশালীন শব্দ, গালি
expletive in Malayalam
- profanity, swear word, oath
- ശാപവചനം, ശാപവാക്ക്, അസംസ്കൃതപദം, ശാപവചസ്സ്, നിന്ദാവചനം, ദുരിഷ്ടം
More languagesFewer languages
- expletive in Kannada
- ಪಾದಪೂರಕಶಬ್ದ, ಅಪಶಬ್ದ, ಕೆಟ್ಟನುಡಿ, ಬಯ್ಗಳು
Examples of expletive in a sentence
- The pop star used so many expletives that the interview was unbroadcastable.
- In the sentences "It is a hammer that is needed." and "There are hammers in the toolbox.", both "it" and "there" are syntactic expletives.
- His tirade contained a torrent of expletives that were bleeped out by his press service.
Synonyms of expletive
Forms of expletive
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more expletive |
| superlative | most expletive |
| Noun | |
| plural | expletives |
Origin of expletive
From Late Latin explētīvus (“serving to fill out”), from Latin explētus, the perfect passive participle of expleō (“fill out”), itself from ex (“out, completely”) + *pleō (“fill”).
Words formed from expletive
Phrases with expletive
Questions about expletive
- What does expletive mean?
- Expletive means serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.
- What is expletive in Tamil?
- Expletive in Tamil is அசைநிலை, கெட்ட வார்த்தை. See Expletive meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is expletive?
- Expletive can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce expletive?
- Expletive is pronounced /ɪkˈspliːtɪv/ (UK).
Words near expletive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: expletive (page history and authors); expletive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); expletive (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Expletive (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); expletive (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); expletive (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-expletive.wav.
Cite this entry: “expletive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/expletive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.