Expensive

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɪkˈspɛnsɪv/

Definitions

1. Costing a large amount of money or more than is considered reasonable or affordable
2. Involving a high monetary value that exceeds what is generally deemed acceptable or within financial reach
3. Pertaining to items or services that require a significant outlay of cash, often beyond typical budget limits

Etymology: Before "expensive" meant costly, it meant "serving to spend," and it was a neutral term about paying out money rather than a judgment about price. The Latin root "expendere" meant "to weigh out," as in weighing coins or metal to pay for something, and from there came the sense of spending. "Expend," the English verb, descends from the same source, so the two words are close relatives that took different paths. The adjective came into English through Latin "expensivus," a formation built on "expendere." In English it kept the idea of disbursement and then drifted toward the modern sense of high cost. The word is built on "expense" with the suffix "-ive," which makes an adjective meaning "tending to" or "having the quality of," so something expensive is something that tends to take a great deal of spending. For centuries, "dear" was the everyday English word for high-priced goods, and "expensive" was more formal. Over time "expensive" pushed "dear" aside for that meaning, and "dear" now survives mainly in phrases like "dear money" or in its older sense of beloved.

Synonyms: costly, pricey, dear, high-priced, extravagant

Antonyms: cheap, inexpensive, affordable, low-cost, reasonable