Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use expression in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun

Expression means the action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc. Example: “The expression "break a leg!" should not be taken literally.”

Examples of expression by meaning

nounThe action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc.

  • 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 expression of who they are.2025 October 11, Stephanie Zacharek, “The Astonishing Versatility of Diane Keaton”, in TIME

nounA colloquialism or idiom.

  • The expression "break a leg!" should not be taken literally.

nounA 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.
  • Her expression changed from joy to misery after realising her winning lottery ticket had expired.

nounThe act of pressing or squeezing out.

  • expression from a gland
  • Breast milk expression can be achieved by hand or with a pump.
  • However the mechanical expression of juice led to an improvement of the solutes extraction from mash.

More sentences with expression

  • I knew he was telling a lie by his facial expression.From the entry lie
  • She took care to school her expression, not giving away any of her feelings.From the entry school
  • When the condition expression is false, the thread blocks on the condition variable.From the entry block
  • His client’s lugubrious expression tipped off the detective that something lurked beneath her optimistic words.From the entry lugubrious
  • Their angry expressions were a clear sign they didn't want to talk.From the entry sign
  • After "reiterate" do not use "(yet) again" and other such expressions.From the entry such
  • This expression is utterly devoid of meaning, a mere flatus vocis.From the entry flatus
  • He stood back and looked at his project with a self-satisfied expression.From the entry self-satisfied
  • In the expression 5 × 3, the "3" is the multiplicand.From the entry multiplicand
  • In the expression 5 × 7, the "5" is a multiplier.From the entry multiplier
  • There was a concerned expression on her face as I told her the news.From the entry concerned
  • Her heart leapt when she saw the expressions on her teachers’ faces.From the entry -'
  • The British government is often referred to by the metonymic expression "Downing Street".From the entry metonymic
  • I could tell from her expression that she was coming up already.From the entry come up
  • The dermal muscles in the face are used to form expressions.From the entry dermal
  • The regular expression overmatched, capturing the entire paragraph instead of the specific sentence.From the entry overmatch
  • The deadness of his expression told everything, without him having to speak.From the entry deadness
  • They were asked to program an expression evaluator that could determine the value of a numeric expression.From the entry evaluator
  • An extended basic block can show more easily when expressions have already been calculated.From the entry extended basic block
  • All's I know is that there are still many expressions missing.From the entry all's
  • In the expression "It's raining", the word "it" is a dummy subject.From the entry dummy subject
  • Remuda is an old-time common expression in the Southwest and Rocky Mountain states.From the entry Rocky Mountain
  • Face it. "It's raining cats and dogs" is an absurd yet evocative expression.From the entry let's face it
  • The two expressions "the morning star" and "the evening star" have different connotations but the same denotation (i.e. the planet Venus).From the entry connotation
  • Squares cannot be easily matched by regular expressions.From the entry square
  • An unguarded expression fell from his lips.From the entry fall
  • In the expression a₃, the "3" is an ordinal number.From the entry ordinal number
  • The expression "raze to the ground" is a tautology, since the word "raze" includes the notion "to the ground".From the entry tautology
  • This regular expression performs a greedy match.From the entry greedy
  • What some other languages convey with prospective aspect, English conveys with expressions like going to drive the car home.From the entry prospective
  • Some of my father's peculiar expressions have stuck with me.From the entry stick with
  • He looked up with a hunted expression.From the entry hunted

Meaning of expression

  1. noun The action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc.
  2. noun A particular way of phrasing an idea.
  3. noun A colloquialism or idiom.

Full definition of expression

Questions about expression in a sentence

How do you use expression in a sentence?
Expression is used as a noun. For example: “The expression "break a leg!" should not be taken literally.”
What is a short sentence with expression?
“expression from a gland”
What does expression mean?
Expression means the action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: expression (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use expression in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/expression. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.