as in curse
a disrespectful or indecent word or expression
unleashed a slew of expletives upon losing the tennis match
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of expletive
Hurley's mother, Christine, was among them and in true Hurley family fashion let a few expletives fly after the last-second win.
—
Andrew McCarty, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Mar. 2026
Apart from the accents, one difference from the American original was the expletives.
—ABC News, 22 Mar. 2026
One friend uttered an expletive after taking a bite of the super-tasty, uber-tender steak, and soon after, the meat disappeared.
—Jess Fleming, Twin Cities, 19 Mar. 2026
The footage, which has been verified by outlets including the BBC, shows the missile landing and Sweeney hitting the deck in a shower of shrapnel before uttering expletives.
—Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for expletive
Andrew McCarty, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Mar. 2026
Apart from the accents, one difference from the American original was the expletives.
—ABC News, 22 Mar. 2026
One friend uttered an expletive after taking a bite of the super-tasty, uber-tender steak, and soon after, the meat disappeared.
—Jess Fleming, Twin Cities, 19 Mar. 2026
The footage, which has been verified by outlets including the BBC, shows the missile landing and Sweeney hitting the deck in a shower of shrapnel before uttering expletives.
—Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for expletive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for expletive
Noun
-
Curse or no curse, the @nyknicks have NO BUSINESS losing this series to the @ATLHawks — no matter how good that young team is.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
25 Apr. 2026
-
The home crowd in hockey can be a blessing and a curse.—
Steve Conroy,
Boston Herald,
22 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The event finds more than 20,000 people participating in an annual bar crawl throughout the city while dressed in their best holiday attire, tackiest Santa Claus costumes, and ugliest Christmas swears.—
Larisha Paul,
Rolling Stone,
15 Apr. 2026
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Kennedy could be heard hurling swears at the Swedish team.—
Andrew Greif,
NBC news,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Across collectors, cultural institutions and design circles, perfume bottles are increasingly being recognized not as packaging, but as artifacts — objects that preserve history, identity and the visual language of their time.—
Sudhir Gupta,
Rolling Stone,
27 Apr. 2026
-
The milquetoast nature of the statement — with its measured language and nonexistent call to action — and the broader absence of real accountability have nagged at me for weeks.—
Uzma Rentia,
STAT,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Ball ended up being fined $60,000 for his actions during the game ($35,000 for the foul, $25,000 for postgame profanity on TV) and assessed a flagrant foul.—
Scott Fowler,
Charlotte Observer,
16 Apr. 2026
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He was fined $25,000 for using profanity in an on-court postgame interview.—
Steve Reed,
Chicago Tribune,
15 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
White supremacist Nick Fuentes, in a video, praised the post while using a racist epithet in his commentary.—
Kevin Dolak,
HollywoodReporter,
10 Apr. 2026
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Tensions rose, neighbors said, to the point that King was heard at times swearing at Kirsten Wells as well as others using vulgar epithets.—
Laura Bauer,
Kansas City Star,
26 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
As the Oxford English Dictionary notes, the expression not hardly is considered a vulgarism.—
NR Editors,
National Review,
16 Apr. 2020
-
The British cringed over new American accents, coinages and vulgarisms.—
Time,
Time,
11 June 2019
Noun
-
And, when the alarm wails hours before dawn, human cusses of angry protest join the chorus of budget appliances failing before their time.—
Virginia Konchan,
The New Yorker,
30 Sep. 2024
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My grandmother extended a ladder up into this tough old cuss of a tree and climbed up, at some risk, to pick the bulging fruit.—
Jim Meddleton,
The Christian Science Monitor,
1 May 2024
Cite this Entry
“Expletive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/expletive. Accessed 30 Apr. 2026.
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