expensive
pronunciation
How to pronounce expensive in British English:
UK [ɪkˈspensɪv]
How to pronounce expensive in American English:
US [ɪkˈspensɪv]
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- Adjective:
- high in price or charging high prices
Word Origin
- expensive (adj.)
- 1620s, "given to profuse expenditure," from expense (n.) + -ive. Meaning "costly, requiring profuse expenditure" is from 1630s. Earlier was expenseful (c. 1600). Expenseless was in use mid-17c.-18c., but there seems now nothing notable to which it applies, and the dictionaries label it "obsolete." Related: Expensively; expensiveness.
Synonym
Antonym
Example
- 1. Why is tuition so expensive today ?
- 2. The surge itself was expensive .
- 3. We gave them expensive and often irrelevant economic advice .
- 4. Expensive things don 't create lasting happiness and security .
- 5. Such lessons are both difficult and expensive to teach .