crass
Americanadjective
-
crasser,
comparative
-
crassest
superlative
-
without refinement, delicacy, or sensitivity; gross; obtuse; stupid.
crass commercialism; a crass misrepresentation of the facts.
- Synonyms:
- indelicate, oafish, boorish, dull
-
Archaic. thick; coarse.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of crass
First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French, from Latin crassus “fat, thick”
Explanation
A crass comment is very stupid and shows that the speaker doesn't care about other people's feelings. In today's day and age, you don't have to wear black to a funeral, but to show up in clown pants is simply crass. The source of this adjective is Latin crassus, "thick, dense, fat." A similar development of meaning can be seen in English dense in the sense of "stupid, slow to understand," from Latin densus, "thick, dense," and in English thick, which can also be used to mean "stupid."
Vocabulary lists containing crass
Flying Lessons & Other Stories
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The Cuckoo's Calling
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The Sound and the Fury
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It’s crass and illegal, and yes, the cameras are insured and immediately get replaced.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
Reform UK's candidate in the Makerfield by-election has admitted making "crass" comments online, after scrutiny of his past posts during the campaign.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
Were he around today, he’d probably have some thoughts about the state of children’s animation too, after seeing director Andy Serkis’ crass, frenetic, Americanized “update” of his anti-totalitarianism creature tale.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
To many of the families of the dead, returning to Mystic is crass bordering on disrespectful.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026
I shrugged, wondering if it was crass to say this in their circles.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
In the critical drubbing that has accompanied the series’ actual release, “Insatiable” has been condemned as a thing even crasser than promised, and not without reason.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 10, 2018
Critics within the union see the objective in somewhat crasser terms.
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2015
It’s not just that communication has become more frequent, it’s become much crasser and coarser.
From Forbes ● Sep. 26, 2012
Long is a book crasser who leaves books in public places to be picked up and read by others who, hopefully, will do the same.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 21, 2011
The bolts of thunder, then, must be conceived As all begotten in those crasser clouds Up-piled aloft; for, from the sky serene And from the clouds of lighter density, None are sent forth forever.
From On the Nature of Things by William Ellery Leonard
And that was just at the crassest level.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2021
Put all this together, and you have quite a charge sheet: exploitation, the turning of music into wallpaper, and the slicing and dicing of great art according to the crassest of considerations.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 29, 2018
Under the act’s crassest feature, the commissioner who returned an alleged runaway to his or her captors received a ten-dollar fee, while deciding for liberty only brought five dollars.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
It lacked the narrative structure, moral fiber, and cathartic transformation that even the crassest feed serials took for granted.
From The Verge ● Dec. 17, 2017
As a rule, only in cases of crassest infidelity or maltreatment, does the wife decide upon divorce.
From Woman under socialism by Daniel De Leon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
