Expletive

//ˈɛksplətɪv// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath.

    "If we don't take advantage of any [expletive] in any way, then it's our loss."

  2. 2
    profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger wordnet
  3. 3
    A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.
  4. 4
    a word or phrase conveying no independent meaning but added to fill out a sentence or metrical line wordnet
  5. 5
    A word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning (such as fuckin in "there's no fuckin way he's gonna get away with it").
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  1. 6
    An obscene or otherwise offensive interjection (such as shit, fuck, or damn it).
Adjective
  1. 1
    Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.

    "No one entered more fully than Shakespeare into the character of this species of poetry, which admits of no expletive imagery, no merely ornamental line."

  2. 2
    Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers).

Synonyms

All synonyms
curseoathbad wordbattologybedizenmentblurt

Example

More examples

"Our word today is eureka. It is a kind of word called an expletive. Expletives are quick, short outcries of pain, surprise, anger or joy. We hear them all the time."

Etymology

From Late Latin explētīvus (“serving to fill out”), from Latin explētus, the perfect passive participle of expleō (“fill out”), itself from ex (“out, completely”) + *pleō (“fill”).

Related phrases

expletive deletedexpletive infixationsyntactic expletivefill up

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.