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View synonyms for obscene

obscene

[ uhb-seen ]

adjective

  1. offensive to morality or decency; indecent; depraved:

    obscene language.

  2. causing uncontrolled sexual desire.
  3. abominable; disgusting; repulsive.


obscene

/ əbˈsiːn /

adjective

  1. offensive or outrageous to accepted standards of decency or modesty
  2. law (of publications) having a tendency to deprave or corrupt
  3. disgusting; repellent

    an obscene massacre



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Derived Forms

  • obˈscenely, adverb

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Other Words From

  • ob·scenely adverb
  • ob·sceneness noun
  • unob·scene adjective
  • unob·scenely adverb
  • unob·sceneness noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of obscene1

First recorded in 1585–95, obscene is from the Latin word obscēnus, obscaenus

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Word History and Origins

Origin of obscene1

C16: from Latin obscēnus inauspicious, perhaps related to caenum filth

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Example Sentences

Buffalo School Board member, Paulette Woods, has apologized after using profanity and obscene gestures during a virtual school board meeting held on Zoom on November 18th.

It’s the idea that for search engines to understand our content, they need an obscene amount of structured formatting.

At a basic level, it means that if you use an Internet service such as Facebook or YouTube to say something obscene or unlawful, then you, not the Internet service, are the one responsible for having said the thing.

Navigating this Land Cruiser through conditions that challenge even my built Ford Ranger has become so easy and so smooth that it’s almost obscene.

“It’s completely obscene that oil companies can cause an oil spill and then profit off it,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental nonprofit organization.

In June, the executive offices of the Metropolitan Opera were broken into and graffitied with obscene messages.

There is something obscene in looking at the raw numbers, is there not?

People who are constantly suppressing the urge to make the most obscene, offensive jokes that spring to mind.

Anything involving that obscene level of cash will definitely have juicy stories behind it.

A monumental political bombshell, his obscene downfall was a cinematic gimme, sure to set screenwriter hearts aflutter.

That pious man liked to have the talk mainly to himself, and he thought that anything not obscene was tame.

There are a great many obscene minds, yet more railing and satirical, but very few fastidious ones.

The marvel was how the editor had contrived to carry intact that innocence of his through the horrors of his obscene profession.

Here amongst the ashes, either was, or seemed to be, a form of obscene shape; but such it really was.

The answer is here in the quarries that, having dehumanised man, have themselves become obscene.

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obs.obscenity