EXPRESSIVE meaning: 1 : showing emotions and feelings clearly and openly; 2 : showing or expressing something + of The Britannica Dictionarymobile search Home Ask the Editor Word of the Day Quizzes Core Vocabulary Browse the Dictionary Britannica Homepage Ask the Editor Word of the Day Quizzes Core Vocabulary Browse the Dictionary

The quality of being expressive; expressivity. The power of expression, or representation by words. Etymology: from expressive. The murrain at the end has all the expressiveness that words can give: it was here that the poet strained hard to outdo Lucretius.

Anything that communicates thoughts or feelings is expressive. Expressive comes from the French word expres for "clear, plain.” It’s easy to read people who are expressive, their emotions are clear. Smiling, laughing, shouting, crying, and pouting are all expressive. So is art, whether it's music, sculpture, or writing.

First, the term is used to denote skill in sending messages nonverbally and facially. The “expressive” person is the individual who is high in emotional encoding ability; she can accurately nonverbally communicate what she is feeling. Emotional expressiveness is also conceptualized as a general expressive style (Friedman et al. 1980b).