noun🔗ShareA profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath."When the student accidentally dropped her textbook, a loud expletive escaped her lips. "curselanguagewordcommunicationlinguisticsChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareA word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position."The sentence is: "In the sentence 'There is a cat on the mat,' the word 'there' is an expletive because it doesn't refer to a place but just fills the subject position." "grammarlanguagewordlinguisticsChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareA word that adds to the strength of a phrase without affecting its meaning."The sentence structure is simple and easily understood by English learners. "The sentence 'There is a cat on the mat' can be shortened to 'A cat is on the mat' because 'there' is an expletive in the first version; it doesn't add any real meaning." "languagegrammarwordlinguisticsChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
adjective🔗ShareServing to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant."The sentence began with an expletive "there," adding nothing to the meaning. "grammarlanguageChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
adjective🔗ShareMarked by expletives (phrase-fillers)."The teacher's lecture was expletive, filled with phrases like "honestly" and "basically" that didn't add much to the content. "languagewordcommunicationcurseChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
