a word, especially a rude word, that you use when you are angry, or in painsynonymswear wordHe dropped the book on his foot and muttered several expletives under his breath.See related entries:AngerWord Originlate Middle English (as an adjective): from late Latin expletivus, from explere ‘fill out’, from ex- ‘out’ + plere ‘fill’. The noun sense ‘word used merely to fill out a sentence’ (early 17th cent.) was applied specifically to a swear word in the early 19th cent.
See expletive in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
