Expletive

Definitions: Expletive

Expletive

Noun

1. Profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger; "expletives were deleted".

2. A word or phrase conveying no independent meaning but added to fill out a sentence or metrical line.

Date "expletive" was first used: 1612. (references)

Synonyms: Expletive

Synonyms: curse (n), curse word (n), cuss (n), oath (n), swearing (n), swearword (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Diffuseness	Polylogy, tautology, battology, perissology; pleonasm, exuberance, redundancy; thrice-told tale; prolixity; circumlocution, ambages; periphrase, periphrasis; roundabout phrases; episode; expletive; pennya-lining; richness.
Redundancy	Superfluous, unnecessary, needless, supervacaneous, uncalled for, to spare, in excess; over and above; (remainder); de trop; adscititious; (additional); supernumerary; (reserve); on one's hands, spare, duplicate, supererogatory, expletive; un peu fort.
	Excess; surplus, overplus; epact; margin; remainder; duplicate; surplusage, expletive; work of supererogation; bonus, bonanza.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Expletive

English words defined with "expletive": And ♦ Expletively, Expletory ♦ jiggered. (references)

Specialty definitions using "expletive": ARRAH NOW ♦ Cripes ♦ Stars and Garters!. (references)

Etymologies containing "expletive": Expletion. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Empty, Expletive, and Missing Subjects in German (Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotics, Vol 11) (reference) Verb Movement and Expletive Subjects in the Germanic Languages (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax) (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Expletive Delighted! (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Expletive" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Expletive" is used about 17 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	17	85,106

Hyphenated Usage
	Containing "expletive": burton-is-an-expletive-deleted.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "expletive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		zëvendësues (acting, adjunct, deputy, ersatz, fill in, locum tenens, makeshift, stand by, stand in, stopgap, substitute, substitution, surrogate), suplementar (added, extra, odd, relief, run on, subsidiary, supplemental, supplementary), pasthirrmë (interjection), mbushës (cement, charger, furniture, primer). (various references)

Arabic		‏حشوى, ‏شىء يستخدم لمجرد ملء الفراغ. (various references)

Bulgarian		ругатня (bad language, curse, cuss, damn, epithet, strafe, swear), възклицание (ejaculation, exclamation, interjection), вмъкната дума (parenthesis), вмъкнат (epenthetic, intercalary, parenthetic, parenthetical), излишен (de trop, excrescent, needless, otiose, pleonastic, redundant, spare, superabundant, superfluous, supernumerary, supervacaneous, surplus, unnecessary, unwanted, waste), допълнителен (accessary, accessorial, accidental, additional, additive, adjunct, complementary, contributory, excess, extra, extraordinary, farther, follow up, fresh, further, over, plus, pony, relief, side, subsidiary, supplementary, tributary). (various references)

Chinese		附� . (various references)

Czech		zvolání (ejaculation, exclamation), přebyteèný (redundant, spare, surplus, waste). (various references)

Farsi		پرکننده , تکمیل کننده , جایگیر (Surrogate). (various references)

Finnish		täytesana. (various references)

French		explétif, interjectif. (various references)

German		ausfüllend. (various references)

Greek		βλαστήμια (swear word), παραπληρωματικόσ (accessary). (various references)

Hungarian		töltelékszó, töltés (bank, bund, burden, cartridge, charge, charging, dike, dyke, embankment, escarp, fill, load, loading, pen, rampart), pót tárgy, pót- (accessory, aux, auxiliary, ersatz, extra, mock, spare), kitöltő, kiegészítő (accessory, adjunct, aux, auxiliary, collateral), káromkodás (bad language, cursing, cuss, damn, oath, profane words, profanities, profanity, swear, swear word, swearing, swear-word), henye szó (padding, tag), henye (faineant, idle, sedent, slothful, sluggish), helyettesítő tárgy, helyettesítő személy. (various references)

Italian		espletivo. (various references)

Manx		fockle lhieenee. (various references)

Pig Latin		expletiveay

Portuguese		expletivo, partícula expletiva, nota explicativa. (various references)

Romanian		expletiv. (various references)

Russian		вставной (epenthetic). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		ekspletivan, ekspletiv, psovka (bad language, curse, curse-word, cuss, oath, swear word, swearword), dopunski (accessorial, additional, complementary, further, remedial, supplementary, variant). (various references)

Spanish		expletivo. (various references)

Swedish		svordom (curse, imprecation, oath). (various references)

Turkish		tamamlayan sözcük, tamamlayıcı (adjunct, collateral, complement, complemental, complementary, component, follow up, integral, integrant, modifier, processor, supplement, supplemental, supplementary), pekiştirici sözcük, küfür (a bad word, abuse, blasphemy, contumely, curse, cuss, cuss word, invective, invectives, oath, profanity, revilement, scurrility, strong language, swearing, swearword), gereksiz sözcük, gereksiz hece, boşluğu dolduran. (various references)

Ukranian		вставний (epenthetic, parenthetic, parenthetical, plug in), додатковий (accessary, accessory, accidental, additional, adventitious, appendant, appendical, auxiliary, collateral, complementary, extra, further, more, new, novel, obverse, odd, other, plus, pony, second, secondary, supernumerary, supplemental, supplementary, surplus). (various references)

Vietnamese		phụ thêm, lời rủa, lời nói tục tĩu. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	explere. (various references)
Late Latin	300-700	expletivus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "expletive": expletives. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Expletive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: expeletive, explative, expletine, explextive, explitive. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "expletive" (pronounced e"ksplutiv)
6	-p l u t i v	contemplative.
5	-l u t i v	cumulative, noncumulative, relative, speculative, superlative.
4	-u t i v	accusative, acquisitive, additive, affirmative, alliterative, alternative, anticompetitive, argumentative, causative, cognitive, commemorative, communicative, comparative, competitive, consecutive, conservative, consultative, curative, decorative, definitive, degenerative, demonstrative, derivative, diminutive, dispositive, duplicative, evocative, executive, exploitative, Federative, figurative, fixative, formative, fugitive, generative, hypersensitive, illustrative, imaginative, imperative, indicative, infinitive, informative, initiative, inoperative, inquisitive, insensitive, interpretive, intuitive, laxative, lucrative, narrative, negative, neoconservative, noncompetitive, nonexecutive, normative, nutritive, operative, palliative, participative, pejorative, positive, prerogative, preservative, preventative, primitive, prohibitive, provocative, punitive, putative, recuperative, remunerative, rep, repetitive, representative, restorative, secretive, sedative, sensitive, talkative, tentative, ultraconservative, uncompetitive, uncooperative, unimaginative, uninformative, unrepresentative, vituperative.
3	-t i v	abortive, accommodative, accumulative, active, adaptive, addictive, adjective, administrative, adoptive, affective, appointive, appreciative, assaultive, assertive, attentive, attractive, authoritative, automotive, captive, collaborative, collective, combative, conductive, congestive, connective, constructive, contraceptive, cooperative, corrective, corruptive, counterproductive, creative, deceptive, defective, deliberative, descriptive, destructive, detective, digestive, dilutive, directive, disincentive, disparages, disruptive, dissipative, distinctive, distributive, effective, elective, elucidative, eruptive, exhaustive, exploitive, facultative, festive, furtive, hyperactive, imitative, inactive, inattentive, incentive, ineffective, infective, injunctive, innovative, instinctive, instructive, interactive, introspective, invective, inventive, investigative, irrespective, iterative, legislative, locomotive, manipulative, meditative, motive, native, nonautomotive, nonnative, nonproductive, objective, obstructive, octave, overactive, perceptive, perspective, photoconductive, plaintive, predictive, preemptive, presumptive, preventive, proactive, probative, productive, prognosticative, projective, prospective, protective, qualitative, quantitative, radioactive, reactive, receptive, reconstructive, redemptive, redistributive, reflective, refractive, regulative, rehabilitative, reproductive, respective, restive, restrictive, retroactive, retrospective, seductive, selective, stimulative, subjective, substantive, suggestive, superconductive, supportive, unattractive, unproductive, unreceptive, vegetative, vindictive.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-e-e-i-l-p-t-v-x"
	-3 letters: pelite.
	-4 letters: elite, evite, exile, expel, ixtle, levee, lieve, peeve, pixel, telex, tepee, vexil.
	-5 letters: epee, evil, exit, ilex, leet, lept, lipe, lite, live, peel, pele, pelt, pile, plie, teel, tele, tile, veep, veil, vext, vile.
	Words containing the letters "e-e-e-i-l-p-t-v-x"
	+1 letter: expletives.
	+4 letters: overexploited.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.