Meaning of EXPLETIVE
| Pronunciation: | | 'eksplutiv
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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- [n] profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger; "expletives were deleted"
- [n] a word or phrase conveying no independent meaning but added to fill out a sentence or metrical line
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| | Synonyms: | | curse, curse word, cuss, oath, swearing, swearword |
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| | See Also: | | profanity, utterance, vocalization | |
| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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\Ex"ple*tive\, a. [L. expletivus, from expletus, p. p.
of explere to fill up; ex out+plere to fill, akin to plenus
full: cf. F. expl['e]tif. See {Full}.]
Filling up; hence, added merely for the purpose of filling
up; superfluous. ``Expletive imagery.'' --Hallam.
Expletive phrases to plump his speech. --Barrow.
\Ex"ple*tive\, n.
A word, letter, or syllable not necessary to the sense, but
inserted to fill a vacancy; an oath.
While explectives their feeble aid to join, And ten low
words oft creep in one dull line. --Pope.
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| Thesaurus Terms |
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| | Related Terms: | | battology, bedizenment, blurt, curse, cuss, cuss word, de trop, dirty name, dirty word, dispensable, duplication, duplication of effort, dysphemism, ecphonesis, ejaculation, embellishment, epithet, excess, exclamation, expendable, extravagance, fat, featherbedding, filler, filling, foul invective, frill, frills, frippery, gingerbread, gratuitous, in excess, iterative, luxury, macrology, naughty word, needless, needlessness, nonessential, no-no, oath, obscenity, ornamentation, outburst, overadornment, overlap, padding, payroll padding, pleonasm, pleonastic, profane oath, prolix, prolixity, redundance, redundancy, redundant, reiterative, repetitious, spare, stammering, stuttering, supererogatory, superfluity, superfluous, superfluousness, swear, swearword, tautologic, tautological, tautologism, tautologous, tautology, to spare, uncalled-for, unessential, unnecessariness, unnecessary, unneeded, verbose, verbosity, wordy |
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