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

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

Bell and co-editor Alex Megaro limit expository information about the WTO and the anti-globalization movement to a short prologue. — Vikram Murthi, IndieWire, 5 Dec. 2025

And even though there are stretches of stagey-sounding expository dialogue, the story manages to wheel along at a clip. — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 12 Sep. 2025

The film is obvious in telegraphing its spooky sequences and its expository ones. — J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 3 Sep. 2025