Expressive

How to spell expressive

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce expressive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does expressive mean?

1. adjectiveEffectively conveying thought or feeling, especially in a vivid or emotional way.

Expressive in a sentence

• Her expressive face revealed exactly how she felt about the news.

• The actor delivered an expressive performance that moved the whole audience.

Where does expressive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb exprimere, which literally meant 'to press out' or 'to squeeze out', formed from the prefix ex- 'out' and premere 'to press'. The image of pressing something out gradually shifted toward the idea of forcing thoughts or feelings out into words or images. English took the word through Old French expresser before settling on the adjective form with the Latin-derived -ive ending, which signals a tendency or capacity. By the 1600s expressive carried its modern sense of vividly conveying emotion or meaning. The same pressing root sits inside everyday relatives like 'press', 'pressure', and 'impress', and remembering the double s of 'press' is the surest way to keep the spelling steady.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• press (from Latin premere/pressus: to press)
• -ive (adjective suffix: tending to)