expression

1 an act, process, or means of putting something into words the poem is his expression of his grief upon the loss of his beloved wife Synonyms articulation, formulation, phrasing, statement, utterance, verbalism, voice, wording Related Words outlet, vent; observation, reflection, remark, thought; speech, tongue

2 facial appearance regarded as an indication of mood or feeling we could tell by the fans' expressions that the Chicago Cubs had lost again Synonyms cast, countenance, look, face, visageRelated Words frown, grimace, lower (also lour), mouth, pout, scowl; grin, smile; air, appearance, aspect, bearing, demeanor, manner, mien, presence

3 a pronounceable series of letters having a distinct meaning especially in a particular field the expression “John Doe” is used in legal proceedings to refer to a person whose actual name is either unknown or being withheld from the public Synonyms word, termRelated Words linguistic form, monosyllable, morpheme, speech form; polysyllable; collocation, idiom, locution, phrase; archaism, coinage, colloquialism, euphemism, loanword, modernism, neologism, vernacularism

4 a sequence of words having a specific meaning the popular expression “raining cats and dogs” is meaningless in other languages Synonyms phrase, idiomRelated Words cliché (also cliche); locution, term; epithet, expletive, name; byword, cry, motto, shibboleth, slogan, watchword; archaism, colloquialism, euphemism, modernism, neologism, provincialism, vulgarism