Words / E / General

expostulate

verb/ɪkˈspɒstjʊleɪt/

C2CEFR level
85/100Rarity: very rare
FormalRegister

To express strong disagreement or earnest reasoning in an attempt to dissuade.

She expostulated with the official for an hour, but the rules could not be bent.

Similar: remonstrate, protest, argue

Origin: From Latin expostulare 'to demand urgently', from ex- + postulare 'to demand'.

Topic: remonstrance in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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