Definition of expensive
1 : involving high cost or sacrifice an expensive hobby
2a : commanding a high price and especially one that is not based on intrinsic worth or is beyond a prospective buyer's meansb : characterized by high prices expensive shops
expensively
adverbexpensiveness
nounExplore M-W
Examples of expensive in a Sentence
The lights were expensive to install.
expensive clothing that only the truly wealthy can afford
Recent Examples of expensive from the Web
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If funded, the new construction — believed to be the single most expensive unclassified building belonging to the 15-year prison — will house 848 soldiers, two to a room, according to prison spokesman Navy Cmdr.
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A 12-ounce, bone-in pork chop — the most expensive thing on the menu at $11.99 — was also good.
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The most expensive apartment building in his precinct needed an eviction.
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Housewarming Gifts for Millennials Vases are expensive.
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TV is still full of young women who live in sprawling California pads and drive expensive cars despite their employment status (or lack thereof)—but the women of The L Word were often misguided at best and downright damaging at worst.
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Making matters worse, parchment became incredibly expensive during the Middle Ages.
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Storage of the video footage is the biggest and most expensive concern among police departments.
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Customers would buy expensive policies that their businesses didn’t need but could write off.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'expensive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of expensive
circa 1610
Other Economics Terms
EXPENSIVE Defined for English Language Learners
expensive
playDefinition of expensive for English Language Learners
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: costing a lot of money
EXPENSIVE Defined for Kids
Learn More about expensive
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See words that rhyme with expensive Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for expensive Spanish Central: Translation of expensive Nglish: Translation of expensive for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of expensive for Arabic speakers
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