Word family noun expression expressiveness adjective expressive ≠ inexpressive expressionless inexpressible verb express adverb expressively expressionlessly inexpressibly
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishexpressiveex‧pres‧sive /ɪkˈspresɪv/ adjective 1 SHOW/BE A SIGN OFshowing very clearly what someone thinks or feels OPP expressionless her wonderfully expressive eyes2 → be expressive of something —expressively adverb —expressiveness noun [uncountable]Examples from the Corpus
expressive• Achuff's dancing is versatile and expressive.• Her eyes grew larger and more expressive.• She has large, expressive eyes.• Violette's expressive face in the mirror passed through a variety of emotions.• He would use his expressive face to bring the stories to life.• They are pictorial, with good drapery and expressive features to the figures.• She is a wonderful actress, with striking, expressive features.• It gave workshops and seminars to help priests and lay people plan liturgies that were expressive, inclusive and theologically sound.• There are circumstances when it pays to use an expressive language.• Cinema directors have long exploited the expressive possibilities of the wide-angled lens.• Children with low comprehension scores but high expressive scores are seen as having possible emotional problems, or as suffering from echolalia.• Trust is the shared silence, the exchanged look, the expressive touch.• He had a quiet but expressive voice. 