as in curse
a disrespectful or indecent word or expression
unleashed a slew of expletives upon losing the tennis match
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of expletive
Around the five-second mark in the video, the toddler turns to the camera, still in her mom's arms, to mime along to an expletive in the GloRilla track playing over the video.
—
Mark Davis, Newsweek, 14 Mar. 2025
Some drivers heckled the protesters, shouting expletives or voicing their support for President Donald Trump and Musk.
—Jeff A. Chamer, Charlotte Observer, 28 Feb. 2025
While some stars opt for bold political statements and others let tears or expletives flow, during Sunday night's Screen Actor's Guild ceremony, Kieran Culkin opted for some humor.
—Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 25 Feb. 2025
What Aimee Lou Wood conveys with an energetic smile and exclamation, Walton Goggins portrays with a scowl and an expletive.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 16 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for expletive
Mark Davis, Newsweek, 14 Mar. 2025
Some drivers heckled the protesters, shouting expletives or voicing their support for President Donald Trump and Musk.
—Jeff A. Chamer, Charlotte Observer, 28 Feb. 2025
While some stars opt for bold political statements and others let tears or expletives flow, during Sunday night's Screen Actor's Guild ceremony, Kieran Culkin opted for some humor.
—Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 25 Feb. 2025
What Aimee Lou Wood conveys with an energetic smile and exclamation, Walton Goggins portrays with a scowl and an expletive.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 16 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for expletive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for expletive
Noun
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One important lesson from the movies is that curses are made to be broken.—
Kevin Dolak,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Mar. 2025
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Growing up, that identity crisis used to feel like such a curse for me.—
Becky G,
Billboard,
27 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Could a nice good swear on the pitch to express one’s anger stop a player from lashing out physically, channelling their anger through their vocal cords rather than their fists?—
Nick Miller,
The Athletic,
21 Feb. 2025
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The station asked the band not to include the swears.—
Kris Holt,
Forbes,
2 Dec. 2024
Noun
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The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.—
Liam Quinn,
People.com,
28 Mar. 2025
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Advanced tools like optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) extract key data— for example, sender details, dates, and document types — instantly. 2.—
Chris Gallagher,
USA Today,
28 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Being attentive to nuances in how curse words are used in different settings can guide you toward a more productive relationship with profanity.—
Stacey Colino,
Time,
1 Apr. 2025
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But putting the two performances against each other keeps drawing our attention to the phoniness of De Niro’s turn as Genovese, to its prefab energy and programmed profanity.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
21 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The test question for which Taylor was placed on leave included a quote from the text which had a racial epithet.—
Campbell Roper,
Arkansas Online,
3 Apr. 2025
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Lincoln Heights resident Eric Ruffin said at Tuesday night's village meeting that one of the demonstrators called him a racial epithet.—
Antonia Hylton,
NBC News,
12 Feb. 2025
Noun
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As the Oxford English Dictionary notes, the expression not hardly is considered a vulgarism.—
NR Editors,
National Review,
16 Apr. 2020
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The British cringed over new American accents, coinages and vulgarisms.—
Time,
Time,
11 June 2019
Noun
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And, when the alarm wails hours before dawn, human cusses of angry protest join the chorus of budget appliances failing before their time.—
Virginia Konchan,
The New Yorker,
30 Sep. 2024
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My grandmother extended a ladder up into this tough old cuss of a tree and climbed up, at some risk, to pick the bulging fruit.—
Jim Meddleton,
The Christian Science Monitor,
1 May 2024
Cite this Entry
“Expletive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/expletive. Accessed 15 Apr. 2025.
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