as in curse
a disrespectful or indecent word or expression
unleashed a slew of expletives upon losing the tennis match
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of expletive
The expletives aired uncensored during the NBC live telecast and Peacock’s simulcast but were muted during the West Coast broadcast and in versions later posted online, including on YouTube, according to the New York Post.
—
Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 19 Oct. 2025
In response, Stanton told him to go away, using an expletive, and sent a series of hostile messages, as well as one asking to meet in person, the complaint alleges.
—Laura Sharman, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 2025
There will be plenty for both returning fans and those who are entering the ludus (gladiator school) for the first time, including the intrigue, battle scenes, deception and lots of Jupiter’s expletives, all of which made the original series a hit for Starz.
—Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 13 Oct. 2025
The difference between an explicit and clean version of a song is that the former contains expletives or vulgarities, while the latter does not.
—Melina Khan, USA Today, 3 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for expletive
Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 19 Oct. 2025
In response, Stanton told him to go away, using an expletive, and sent a series of hostile messages, as well as one asking to meet in person, the complaint alleges.
—Laura Sharman, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 2025
There will be plenty for both returning fans and those who are entering the ludus (gladiator school) for the first time, including the intrigue, battle scenes, deception and lots of Jupiter’s expletives, all of which made the original series a hit for Starz.
—Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 13 Oct. 2025
The difference between an explicit and clean version of a song is that the former contains expletives or vulgarities, while the latter does not.
—Melina Khan, USA Today, 3 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for expletive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for expletive
Noun
-
With the launch of the Culling Game in the aftermath, 10 colonies from across Japan are transformed into dens of curses as part of a plot orchestrated by the most wicked sorcerer in history, Noritoshi Kamo.—
Nick Romano,
Entertainment Weekly,
7 Nov. 2025
-
Her goal helped the club secure its first berth in the NWSL playoffs, snapping a ninth-place curse that had haunted the team since its debut in 2021.—
Tamerra Griffin,
New York Times,
3 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Proponents of the shake method swear that shaking out your laundry will prevent tangling, make drying more efficient, and reduce wrinkles in the process.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
3 Nov. 2025
-
Visitors of years past swear by their trick-or-treating hauls from these affluent neighborhoods, specifically the homes of Marissa Meyer (Professorville), Mark Zuckerberg (Crescent Park) and Larry Page and Laurene Powell Jobs (Old Palo Alto).—
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
In a similar vein, Timnit Gebru, a computer scientist writing during her time working at Google, warned of the dangers of large language models acting as stochastic parrots, which repeat language patterns without understanding, and in doing so replicate the biases embedded in their training data.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Nov. 2025
-
The dust-up stems back to the Spanish singer’s recent appearance on the New York Times’ Popcast, where she was asked about singing in about 13 different languages one her new album Lux and the challenges of communicating with a global audience.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
5 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
As the speeches began, chaos consumed the day as air horns were blasted, pages from pornographic magazines thrown down from the balconies and white mice released on to the floor, before the ‘nun’ started dancing up and down the aisles shouting comic profanity.—
Jesse Whittock,
Deadline,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Video from the scene shows an agent wrestling a suspect to the ground and striking him multiple times as bystanders shouted profanity and tried to intervene, with one person attempting to pull an agent away.—
Bonny Chu,
FOXNews.com,
3 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
In fact, the term itself was an epithet throughout the founding era, a way to describe ignorant and easily deceived popular majorities, perpetually vulnerable to demagogues.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Oct. 2025
-
According to research from Copyleaks, an AI analysis firm that helps businesses and institutions navigate the shifting landscape of this emergent technology, a new trend has produced Sora videos of celebrities appearing to spew hateful racist epithets.—
Miles Klee,
Rolling Stone,
23 Oct. 2025
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
-
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 16 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share