Costing a lot of money. It can also suggest that something requires a lot of effort or sacrifice.
From Latin *expensivus* ‘costly’, from *expensa* ‘payment’. It grew from the idea of something that has required a large payment.
What counts as ‘expensive’ secretly depends on what you have; the word measures pain, not just price. A $50 meal might be cheap to one person and wildly expensive to another, even though the number is the same.
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