Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Expressive |
ExpressiveAdjective1. Characterized by expression; "an expressive glance"; "a very expressive face". 2. (usually followed by `of') giving expression to; "actons indicative of fear". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "expressive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references) |
Etymology: Expressive \Ex*press"ive\, adjective. [Compare to the French expression expressif.]. (references) |
Synonyms: ExpressiveSynonyms: expressive(p) (adj), indicative of(p) (adj), revelatory (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Imagination | Adjective: meaning; Verb: expressive, suggestive, allusive; significant, significative, significatory; pithy; full of meaning, pregnant with meaning. |
Information | Expressive; explicit; (open), (clear); plain spoken; (artless). |
Intelligibility | Graphic; expressive; (meaning); illustrative; (explanatory). |
Prediction | The following terms, expressive of different forms of divination, have been collected from various sources,The following terms, expressive of different forms of divination, have been collected from various sources, and are here given as a curious illustration of bygone superstitions:- |
Sensibility | Adjective: sensible, sensitive; impressible, impressionable; susceptive, susceptible; alive to, impassionable, gushing; warm hearted, tender hearted, soft hearted; tender as a chicken; soft, sentimental, romantic; enthusiastic, highflying, spirited, mettlesome, vivacious, lively, expressive, mobile, tremblingly alive; excitable; oversensitive, without skin, thin-skinned; fastidious. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Three of Uncle Sam's Pets. We get rations every 29 days. Our pulse is good. Expressive medium. We put in 60 minutes each hour in our present attitude. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Expressive Hands 9" by Alan Lee Commentary: "A series of hand shots that are great for compositing into other photos." | "Kenyan girl" by José Warletta Commentary: "Expressive look of a girl in Nairobi, Kenya." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Highly expressive modulating excerpt featuring a lot of arpeggios. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Friedrich Engels | What, indeed, is agnosticism, but, to use an expressive term, "shamefaced" materialism. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Madame Magloire made an expressive gesture |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Expressive techniques to help patients identify and work through interpersonal relationship issues. (references) | |
Parents can also help XXY boys develop their expressive language abilities simply by providing good examples. (references) | ||
XXY males usually have difficulty with expressive language the ability to put thoughts, ideas, and emotions into words. (references) | ||
Travel | Egypt | Colloquial Cairene Arabic is expressive and rich in words of Coptic, European and Turkish origins. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Angelina Jolie | Well, I think that because they were artists and they are artists, the best thing that happened is they were very expressive and they were very encouraging of me to be a free spirit and to be open. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Expressive" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.81% of the time. "Expressive" is used about 529 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 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.81% | 528 | 11,584 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.19% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 529 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "expressive": expressive aphasia ♦ expressive arts ♦ expressive function ♦ expressive notation ♦ expressive of ♦ expressive of different forms of divination ♦ expressive style ♦ expressive subjects ♦ in expressive. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "expressive": non-expressive. | |
| 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 "expressive"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shprehës (eloquent, meaningful, significant), që shpreh, i shprehshëm (expressible). (various references) | |
Arabic | معبر (expressing, meaningful, passageway, significant, soulful, telling), تعبيرى. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | изразяващ (predicative, significant, significative), изразителен (emphatic, meaningful, nervous, pungent, speaking, talking, telling, terse). (various references) | |
Chinese | 传神. (various references) | |
Czech | expresivní, významný (eminent, important, leading, meaningful, notable, relevant, significant), výrazný (bold, broad, decided, distinct, distinctive, expressible, full-faced, marked, pronounced, significant), výmluvný (eloquent, golden-mouthed, meaningful, telling). (various references) | |
Danish | expressiv sprogfunktion (expressive language), ekspressiv afasi (aphemia, ataxic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia), ekspressiv dysfasi (disorder of expressive language acquisition), ekspressiv empati (expressive empathy), ekspressiv hysteri (expressive hysteria), ekspressiv notation (expressive notation, structural notation, structured notation), expressiv afasi (aphemia, ataxic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia), udtrykshysteri (expressive hysteria), mimisk bevægelse (expressive movement, gesture), ataktisk motorisk afasi (aphemia, ataxic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia), motorisk afasi (aphemia, ataxic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia), ordstumhed (aphemia, ataxic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia), sprogproduktion (expressive language), strukturvisende notation (expressive notation, structural notation, structured notation), tale (speak, speech, talk), kropssprog (expressive movement, gesture). (various references) | |
Dutch | expressieve notatie (expressive notation, structural notation, structured notation), expressieve afasie (aphemia, ataxic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia), expressievakken (artistic activities, creative arts, creative expression, creative subjects, expressive arts, expressive subjects), expressie-activiteiten (expressive activities), uitdrukkingsbeweging (expressive movement, gesture), taalontwikkelingsstoornis van het expressieve type (disorder of expressive language acquisition), muzische vakken (creative arts, creative expression, creative subjects, expressive arts, expressive subjects), motorische afasie (aphemia, ataxic aphasia, ataxic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia), gesproken taal (expressive language, spoken language), aphasia atactica (aphemia, ataxic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, motor aphasia). (various references) | |
Farsi | پرمعنی (Meaningful, Significant), مشعر, حاکی (Redolent, Symbolic, Symptomatic), اشاره کننده (Poniter), رسا (Adequate, Audible, Loud, Stentorian). (various references) | |
Finnish | merkitsevä (indicative, significant, suggestive), ilmeikäs (full of expression). (various references) | |
French | expressif. (various references) | |
German | expressiv, gefühlvoll (emotional, emotionally, feelingly, lyric, lyrical, lyrically, sensitive, sentimental, sentimentally, soulful, soulfully), ausdrucksvoll (eloquent, powerful, virile), ausdrucksfähig. (various references) | |
Greek | εκφραστικόσ, εκφραστικός. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מלא הבעה, אקספרסיבי. (various references) | |
Hungarian | nyílt (above board, aboveboard, candid, declared, disarming, expansiveness, explicit, flat, forthright, Frank, guileless, honest, open, open route, outright, outspoken, overt, plain spoken, round, sincere, straight, transparent, unclass, unclassified, undefended, up front), kifejezõ (demonstrative, significant, significative, soulful). (various references) | |
Indonesian | ekspresif. (various references) | |
Italian | espressivo (soulful, telling). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 表現力 (expressive power, expressiveness, power of expression). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ひょうげんりょく (expressive power, expressiveness, power of expression). (various references) | |
Korean | 표현하는. (various references) | |
Manx | trome-cheayllagh, lane dy vree (full of pep, full of vim, significant), dreaghagh, blaystal. (various references) | |
Norwegian | uttrykksfull. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | expressiveay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | expressivo (distinguish, eloquent, home, incisive, meaning, significant, speaking, talking), enérgico (alive, deedful, devil, drastic, energetic, forceful, forcible, intense, live, lusty, mettled, mettlesome, peppy, pithy, potent, punchy, pushing, sinewy, spunky, strenuous, strong, trenchant, two-fisted, vibrant, vigorous, virile). (various references) | |
Romanian | expresiv (clear, eloquent, graphic, graphical, graphically, nervous, significant, speaking, suggestive), semnificativ (considerable, eloquent, emphatic, graphic, graphical, important, knowing, meaning, meaningful, meaningfully, notional, significant, significantly, significative, telling), lucitor (bright, flaming, lustrous, shining, sparkling). (various references) | |
Russian | выразительный (eloquent, emphatic, impressive, meaningful, nervous, pithy, speaking, talking). (various references) | |
Scottish | U! (interj. expressive of surprise or disappointment), tit (an interjection expressive of wet being perceived suddenly: English chut), sgilm (a mouth expressive of scolding aptitude), ùbh, ùbh! (interj. expressive of aversion). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | izrazit (distinct, outstanding), izražajan (expressible). (various references) | |
Spanish | expresivo (pithy). (various references) | |
Swedish | uttrycksfull (eloquent). (various references) | |
Turkish | etkileyici (affecting, affective, charismatic, devastating, dramatic, effective, effectively, enchanting, fascinating, forceful, handsome, imposing, impressive, intense, speaking, touchy, winged), ifadeli, dokunaklı (acidulous, affective, barbed, biting, eloquent, incisive, mordant, moving, pathetic, poignant, pointed, pungent, scathing, sour, speaking, touching, trenchant), canlı (active, alive, animate, animated, beany, breezy, bright, brightly, brisk, bustling, colorful, colourful, Corky, crisp, crispy, dashing, dewy, driving, exhilarated, exuberant, feeling, fresh, full of beans, full of life, gay, genially, ginger, gingery, glowing, go-go, graphic, graphical, hearty, humming, in the flesh, inspired, life, live, lively, living, living being, living creature, lusty, mercurial, mettled, mettlesome, peppy, perky, picturesque, quick, racy, rich, rousing, sappy, saturated, smart, snappy, spirited, sprightly, springy, swinging, vibrant, vital, vivacious, vivid, warm, with it, zippy), anlamlı (eloquent, meaning, meaningful, pointed, pregnant, purposeful, revealing, rich, significant, significative). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | виразний (appellative, apt, articulate, audible, bold, clear, concise, eloquent, emphatic, emphatical, expressional, impressive, legible, meaningful, nervous, orotund, pronounced, pure, sharp, speaking, talking), експресивний (expressional), емоційний (apt, emotive, pathologic, pathological, soulful). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | significans, significante. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "expressive": expressively, expressiveness, expressivenesses. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "expressive": inexpressive, unexpressive. (additional references) | |
Words containing "expressive": inexpressively, inexpressiveness, inexpressivenesses. (additional references) | |
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"Expressive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: eggspressive, espressivo, Expersoft, expressif, expressivism, expressivist, expressivo. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "expressive" (pronounced ikspre"siv) |
| 6 | -p r e" s i v | depressive, impressive, oppressive, repressive, unimpressive. |
| 5 | -r e" s i v | aggressive, progressive, regressive. |
| 4 | -e" s i v | excessive, obsessive, possessive, recessive, successive. |
| 3 | -s i v | abrasive, abusive, adhesive, allusive, apprehensive, aversive, coercive, cohesive, collusive, comprehensive, compulsive, conclusive, conducive, convulsive, corrosive, counteroffensive, decisive, defensive, derisive, discursive, dismissive, dispersive, divisive, effusive, elusive, erosive, evasive, exclusive, expansive, expensive, explosive, extensive, hypertensive, illusive, impassive, impulsive, incisive, inclusive, inconclusive, indecisive, inexpensive, inoffensive, intrusive, invasive, massive, missive, nonexclusive, nonresponsive, obtrusive, offensive, passive, pensive, permissive, persuasive, pervasive, reclusive, reflexive, repulsive, responsive, submissive, subversive, unobtrusive, unresponsive. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-e-i-p-r-s-s-v-x" | |
-2 letters: previses. | |
-3 letters: expires, express, peeress, peeries, previse, prexies, revises, seepier, veeries, vespers. | |
-4 letters: espies, expire, peerie, peeves, peises, perses, pisser, prexes, prises, reeves, reives, resees, revise, seiser, series, serves, severe, severs, sexier, sieves, sirees, sivers, speers, speirs, speise, spiers, spires, sprees, verses, vesper, vexers, vipers. | |
-5 letters: eerie, epees, erses, peers, peeve, peise, peris, perse. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-e-i-p-r-s-s-v-x" | |
+2 letters: expressively, inexpressive, unexpressive. | |
+4 letters: expressiveness, expressivities, inexpressively, superexpensive. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Spoken 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
