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expensive

Meaning in simple English

US /ɪkˈspɛnsɪv/ · UK /ɪkˈspensɪv/

expensive means: Costing a lot of money or requiring a lot of effort to get.

adjective

HIGH COSTA1

Costing a lot of money or requiring a lot of effort to get.

  • That coat is expensive.
  • We stayed in a less expensive hotel.
  • Why are train tickets so expensive?

How to use it: expensive to do something (This car is expensive to repair.)

Similar words: costly, pricey

Opposites: cheap, inexpensive

Common phrases: expensive clothes, too expensive, expensive to buy, expensive car

COMPUTING RESOURCESC1

Using a lot of computer time, memory, or processing power.

  • This calculation is expensive.
  • We replaced the expensive algorithm with a faster one.
  • Repeated database searches can be expensive.

Similar words: resource-intensive, costly

Opposites: cheap

Common phrases: expensive operation, expensive computation, computationally expensive

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