expletive

Meaning

Adj

1. Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant.
2. Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers).

Noun

1. A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath.
2. A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.
3. 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").
4. An obscene or otherwise offensive interjection (such as shit, fuck, or damn it).

Synonyms

curse

cuss

curse word

swear word

dirty word

oath

swearword

invective

insult

s-word

four-letter word

malediction

swearing

swear-word

cursed

profanity

redundant

expletive stone

copulate

compensative

accessary

wordy

exclamation

❗

dummy head

admiration

Translations

juron

Schimpfwort

explétif

parolaccia

dijûn

sixêf

xeber

çêrr

gros mot

Fluch

dijmîn

zêf

kufrî

mirqî

zêv

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɪkˈspliːtɪv/

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”).