Synonyms of expository

expository

adjective

ik-ˈspä-zə-ˌtȯr-ē 

as in interpretive

serving to explain

an expository piece on the workings of the internal-combustion engine

Synonyms & Similar Words

• interpretive
• interpretative
• illustrative
• explanative
• explanatory
• illuminative
• exegetical
• analytic
• explicative
• expositive
• explicatory
• discursive
• elucidative
• demonstrative
• exculpatory
• exonerative

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of expository

There’s also good dialogue—witty and world-building, instead of merely expository. — Ian MacKenzie, Literary Hub, 27 May 2026

Berling’s Henri, especially, suffers from the film’s disinterest in anyone aside from its central figure; a key scene between him and Gabrielle lays out their history in clumsy expository snippets. — Jon Frosch, HollywoodReporter, 13 May 2026

Yet the book medium, which favors the expository side of Paglen’s practice, can make his artworks feel subordinate to his research. — Louis Bury, ARTnews.com, 1 May 2026

Because Zendaya plays young women, these women still have parents, and the actors cast to play her parents—which is to say her history, the expository reasons for her Blackness—typically flit in and out of the background, there to signify and do nothing else. — Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2026