expression
Syllables: ex·pres·sion/əkˈspɹɛʃ.n̩/
expression noun: the action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc.
Noun
expression (countable and uncountable, plural expressions)
- The action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc.
- There are lots of great actresses who dress beautifully, but in the modern day, nearly all of them use stylists. They may know what they like—when they’re presented with gowns and outfits, they’re perfectly equipped to say yes or no—but you rarely get the sense that what they’re wearing is a true...2025 October 11, Stephanie Zacharek, “The Astonishing Versatility of Diane Keaton”, in TIME
- A particular way of phrasing an idea.
- A colloquialism or idiom.
- The expression "break a leg!" should not be taken literally.
- A facial appearance usually associated with an emotion.
- They stared at the newcomer with a puzzled expression.
- The best poker players can tell if the opponents have a good hand by looking at their expression.
- An arrangement of symbols denoting values, operations performed on them, and grouping symbols.
- The process of translating a gene into a protein.
- A piece of code in a high-level language that returns a value.
- A specific blend of whisky.
- The act of pressing or squeezing out.
- expression from a gland
- Breast milk expression can be achieved by hand or with a pump.
- The tone of voice or sound in music.
- Emotional involvement or engagement in a text read aloud rendered by the voice of the reciter or the reader.
- The number of children who could read with expression would be very small ; ...1849, Great Britain. Committee on Education, Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education; with appendices. 1847-8-9. England and Wales. Schools of Parochial Unions, etc, page 154
- I cannot say that all read with expression. Indeed , this power is hardly to be expected in young children . And though “ to read with expression ...1864, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, page 170
expression meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
expression in Hindi
- colloquialism or idiom
- मुहावरा muhāvrā, इबारत ibārat
expression in Tamil
- வெளிப்படுத்தும் தன்மை, பாவனை, முகத்தோற்றம், கூற்று, கோவை
expression in Urdu
- colloquialism or idiom
- عِبارَت 'ibārat
expression in Bengali
- অভিব্যক্তি, প্রকাশ, রাশি, মুখের ভাব, মতপ্রকাশ, মুখাবয়ব
More languagesFewer languages
- expression in Telugu
- నుడి nuḍi
- expression in Malayalam
- ആവിഷ്കാരം āviṣkāraṁ, ഭാവം bhāvaṁ
- expression in Kannada
- ನುಡಿತ
- expression in Punjabi
- ਸਮੀਕਰਨ, ਪ੍ਰਗਟਾਵੇ, ਪ੍ਰਗਟਾਵਾ
- expression in Gujarati
- અભિવ્યક્તિ, અભિવ્યક્તી
- expression in Odia
- ଅଭିବ୍ଯ଼କ୍ତି, ଅଭିବ୍ଯକ୍ତି
- expression in Nepali
- अभिव्यक्ति, अभिव्यक्ती
- expression in Pashto
- اصطلاح estelāh, افاده efāda
- expression in Tagalog
- pahayag
- expression in Arabic
- تَعْبِير taʕbīr, عِبَارَة ʕibāra, سِيمَاء sīmāʔ
- expression in Malay
- ungkapan
- expression in Indonesian
- ekspresi, ungkapan, curahan, air muka
- expression in Thai
- สำนวน sǎm-nuuan, สีหน้า sǐi-nâa
- expression in Vietnamese
- thành ngữ, từ ngữ, biểu thức, vẻ
- expression in Myanmar
- နိဒ္ဒေသ niddesa.
Examples of expression in a sentence
- Her expression changed from joy to misery after realising her winning lottery ticket had expired.
- However the mechanical expression of juice led to an improvement of the solutes extraction from mash.
- When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 9, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- To read with expression, readers must know when to pause appropriately, must know when to change their tone to reflect the emotions of different characters, ...2010, Kimberly A. Henry, How Do I Teach this Kid to Read?: Teaching Literacy Skills to Young Children with Autism, from Phonics to Fluency...
- When you read with expression, your audience will understand and appreciate your “performance.” Name ...2014, Edward Fry, Timothy Rasinski, High Frequency Word Phrases Level 3--Reading with Expression, Teacher Created Materials, →ISBN, page 43:
Forms of expression
| plural | expressions |
|---|
Origin of expression
Borrowed from Middle French expression, from Late Latin expressiō, expressiōnem (“a pressing out”). Morphologically express + -ion.
Words formed from expression
- agroexpression
- bioexpression
- coexpression
- downexpression
- dysexpression
- express
- expressible
- expressional
- expressionful
- expressionism
- expressionist
- expressionless
- expressionlet
- expression of interest
- expression stop
- expression template
- expressive
- facial expression
- freedom of expression
- free expression
- gender expression
- gene expression
- hyperexpression
- hypoexpression
- immunoexpression
- inexpression
- infraexpression
- microexpression
- misexpression
- multi-word expression
- multiword expression
- neoexpression
- nonexpression
- overexpression
- pardon the expression
- reexpression
- R-expression
- RNA expression pattern
- RNA expression profile
- self-expression
- S-expression
- simplified expression
- subexpression
- superexpression
- surexpression
- symbolic expression
- synexpression
- underexpression
- upexpression
- viscoexpression
Phrases with expression
Words that rhyme with expression
- freshen
- impression
- possession
- session
- depression
- confession
- recession
- compression
- profession
- obsession
- cession
- oppression
8 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about expression
- What does expression mean?
- Expression means the action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc.
- What is expression in Hindi?
- Expression in Hindi is मुहावरा (muhāvrā), इबारत (ibārat). See Expression meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use expression in a sentence?
- Her expression changed from joy to misery after realising her winning lottery ticket had expired.
- What part of speech is expression?
- Expression is a noun.
- How do you pronounce expression?
- Expression is pronounced /əkˈspɹɛʃ.n̩/.
- What is the plural of expression?
- The plural of expression is expressions.
Words near expression in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: expression (page history and authors); expression (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); expression (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); నుడి (Telugu) (page history and authors); ആവിഷ്കാരം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); expression (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); expression (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); expression (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); expression (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); expression (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-expression.ogg.
Cite this entry: “expression.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/expression. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.