Word family noun expenditure expense expenses adjective expensive ≠ inexpensive verb expend adverb expensively ≠ inexpensively
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishexpensiveex‧pen‧sive /ɪkˈspensɪv/ ●●● S1 W2 adjective EXPENSIVEcosting a lot of money OPP cheap the most expensive restaurant in town Petrol is becoming more and more expensive. Photography is an expensive hobby.expensive to buy/run/produce/maintain etc The house was too big and expensive to run. For low-income families, children’s safety equipment can be prohibitively expensive (=so expensive that most people cannot afford it). Employing the wrong builder can be a horribly expensive mistake. Her husband had expensive tastes (=liked expensive things). —expensively adverb She’s always expensively dressed.COLLOCATIONSadverbsquite/fairly expensiveThe food’s quite expensive, but it’s really nice.rather/pretty expensive (=more expensive than you expect)I think £1000 for a bed is rather expensive.very/extremely expensiveWe ate at a very expensive restaurant.astronomically/phenomenally expensive (=used to emphasize how expensive something is)Some new medical treatments are phenomenally expensive.hugely expensive (=extremely expensive, especially when you think something is too expensive)The building is hugely expensive to maintain.ridiculously/outrageously/horrendously expensive (=extremely expensive, in a way that seems shocking)Room service in the hotel was ridiculously expensive.extortionately expensive (=extremely expensive, in a way that is not fair or reasonable)Houses in some parts of London are extortionately expensive.prohibitively expensive formal (=too expensive, with the result that most people cannot afford to buy something)HIV medicines are still prohibitively expensive for sufferers in Africa.verbslook expensiveAll of her clothes look very expensive.prove expensiveTheir decision could prove expensive.nounsexpensive tastes (=a desire to have things that are very expensive)His wife has very expensive tastes and his kids always want the latest things.an expensive mistake (=a mistake which results in someone having to spend a lot of money)Choosing the wrong builder turned out to be an expensive mistake. THESAURUSexpensive costing a lot of moneyan expensive carApartments in the city are very expensive.An underground train system is expensive to build.high costing a lot of money. You use high about rents/fees/prices/costs. Don’t use expensive with these wordsRents are very high in this area.Lawyers charge high fees.the high cost of living in Japandear [not before noun] British English spoken expensive compared to the usual price£3.50 seems rather dear for a cup of coffee.pricey /ˈpraɪsi/ informal expensiveThe clothes are beautiful but pricey.costly expensive in a way that wastes moneyUpgrading the system would be very costly.They were anxious to avoid a costly legal battle.cost a fortune informal to be very expensiveThe necklace must have cost a fortune!exorbitant /ɪɡˈzɔːbətənt $ -ɔːr-/ much too expensiveSome accountants charge exorbitant fees.astronomical astronomical prices, costs, and fees are extremely highthe astronomical cost of developing a new spacecraft the astronomical prices which some people had paid for their seats The cost of living is astronomical. overpriced too expensive and not worth the priceThe DVDs were vastly overpriced.somebody can’t afford something someone does not have enough money to buy or do somethingMost people can’t afford to send their children to private schools. Examples from the Corpus
expensive• College is more expensive and more critical to middle-class status than in the past.• Do you have any less expensive cameras?• And here you will be seated in an expensive chair.• She spends most of her money on expensive clothes.• Means testing was expensive, clumsy and time-wasting.• Smoking can be an expensive habit.• It will be both a richer world and a less expensive one.• And it's not one of their more expensive ones, either.• The house is on West Boston Avenue, Detroit's most expensive residential area.• an expensive restaurant• My uncle took us out to dinner at an expensive restaurant.• Comparisons reveal that further-processed fish products are more expensive than frozen raw fillets and steaks.• Taxis are so expensive - that's why I usually take the bus.• Movies are incredibly expensive to make these days.• Spartan carries important data from that experiment, which tested lighter and less expensive ways to put large structures in space.expensive to buy/run/produce/maintain etc• And they're too expensive to buy.• Oh sure, a few survived but no one actually bought one because they were too damned expensive to run.• The disadvantage is cartridges are more expensive to produce.• The property contains some 550 historic structures that are expensive to maintain.• This kind of entertainment was computationally intensive, expensive to produce, and expensive to buy.• They are simply too expensive to run and maintain over such a long distance.• Also, a car's very expensive to buy and to run.From Longman Business Dictionaryexpensiveex‧pen‧sive /ɪkˈspensɪv/ adjective1costing a lot of moneyexpensive computer equipmentMany manufacturers would find setting up their own High Street stores prohibitively expensive (=so expensive that they could not afford it).2charging a lot of moneyWe were booked into one of Miami’s most expensive hotels. 