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  1. expletive love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An exclamation or oath, especially one that is profane, vulgar, or obscene.
  2. n. A word or phrase that does not contribute any meaning but is added only to fill out a sentence or a metrical line.
  3. n. Linguistics A word or other grammatical element that has no meaning but is needed to fill a syntactic position, such as the words it and there in the sentences It's raining and There are many books on the table.
  4. adj. Added or inserted in order to fill out something, such as a sentence or a metrical line.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Serving to fill up; added to fill a vacancy, or for factitious emphasis: specifically used of words. See II., 2.
  2. n. Something used to fill up; something not necessary but used for embellishment.
  3. n. In rhetoric and grammar, a word or syllable which is not necessary to the sense or construction, or to an adequate description of a thing, but which is added for rhetorical, rhythmical, or metrical reasons, or which, being once necessary or significant, has lost notional force. Expletives of the former kind are usually trite adjectives, added, as in feeble prose or verse, for the mere sound or to fill out a line, or else irrelevant words or terms used for factitious emphasis, as in profane swearing. Expletives of the latter kind are usually particles like the introductory there, used without local reference, and the auxiliary do, used as in the first line of the quotation from Pope.
  4. n. Hence, by euphemism, an oath; an exclamatory imprecation: as, his conversation was garnished with expletives.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant
  2. adj. Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers)
  3. n. A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath.
  4. n. linguistics A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.
  5. n. linguistics A word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Filling up; hence, added merely for the purpose of filling up; superfluous.
  2. n. A word, letter, or syllable not necessary to the sense, but inserted to fill a vacancy; an oath.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a word or phrase conveying no independent meaning but added to fill out a sentence or metrical line
  2. n. profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger

Etymologies

  1. 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"). (Wiktionary)
  2. From Late Latin explētīvus, serving to fill out, from Latin explētus, past participle of explēre, to fill out : ex-, ex- + plēre, to fill; see pelə-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. superfluous
  1. oath
  1. oat
  1. expletory

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. utterance
  1. vocalization
  1. profanity

same context (14)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. snore
  2. patois
  1. twang
  2. guffaw
  1. grumble
  2. obscenity
  1. pleonasm
  2. bellow
  1. drawl
  2. before
  1. after
  2. whimper
  1. yowl
  2. imprecation

reverse dictionary (38)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. a
  2. expletively
  3. expletory
  4. darned
  5. crap
  6. why
  7. almightily
  1. arrah
  2. belive
  3. beshrew
  4. cuss-word
  5. drat
  6. gee
  7. that
  1. and
  2. bull
  3. devil
  4. adad
  5. man
  6. impersonal
  7. jiggered
  1. so
  2. bloody
  3. but
  4. cursed
  5. curst
  6. damnation
  7. earthly
  1. fare
  2. far-forth
  3. mun
  4. now
  5. once
  6. plague
  7. sorrow
  1. vum
  2. well
  3. what

tagging (3)

Words tagged ‘expletive’

  1. bloody hell
  1. fuck
  1. gor-blimey

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Lists

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Comments

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  • qroqqa In grammar, a word empty of meaning. These include unintegrated fillers such as 'like', 'I mean', 'sort of', as well as nouns such as the dummy subject pronouns 'it' and 'there'. Swear words can be considered expletive if they're uttered out of habit with no intensifying meaning: from this has arisen the practice (outside grammar) of calling all swear words expletives. Jul 29, 2008

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‘expletive’ has been looked up 3699 times, loved by 3 people, added to 36 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 21.