indelicate
Americanadjective
-
offensive to a sense of generally accepted propriety, modesty, or decency; improper, unrefined, or coarse.
indelicate language.
- Synonyms:
- rude, gauche, untactful, indecorous
-
not delicate; lacking delicacy; rough.
adjective
-
coarse, crude, or rough
-
offensive, embarrassing, or tasteless
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of indelicate
Explanation
Indelicate things are offensive or rude. If you tell an indelicate joke to your sweet, old-fashioned great-grandmother, it'll make her blush. Many people would consider the question, "How much money do you make?" to be an indelicate one — it's tactless to ask it. Dirty jokes are indelicate because they're in bad taste, likely to offend someone. The adjective indelicate uses the "not" prefix in- along with delicate, which here means "tactful and considerate."
Vocabulary lists containing indelicate
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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.
In occasionally indelicate detail, “Tusker: Brotherhood of Elephants” studies the reproductive lives of Kenya’s rare “tuskers”—animals whose tusks weigh more than 100 pounds apiece, making them especially attractive to poachers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 13, 2026
It’s almost an abrupt, indelicate retort to Ingres’ laborious refinement.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 26, 2022
Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula wrote to the U.N. mission, known as MONUSCO, that the tensions between the two sides are due to what he called U.N. spokesman Mathias Gillman’s indelicate and inopportune statements.
From Washington Post • Aug. 3, 2022
The government said that the spokesman, Mathias Gillmann, had made "indelicate and inappropriate" statements which contributed to the tensions between the population and MONUSCO.
From Reuters • Aug. 3, 2022
“Unpleasant. Extremely unpleasant. Even when you know he’ll do the same to you, it’s still a very indelicate thing to do.”
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
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.
