obscene
Americanadjective
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offensive to morality or decency; indecent; depraved.
obscene language.
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causing uncontrolled sexual desire.
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abominable; disgusting; repulsive.
adjective
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offensive or outrageous to accepted standards of decency or modesty
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law (of publications) having a tendency to deprave or corrupt
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disgusting; repellent
an obscene massacre
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of obscene
First recorded in 1585–95, obscene is from the Latin word obscēnus, obscaenus
Explanation
Obscene describes something that is morally offensive in a sexual way. It's never a good idea to use obscene language at school. Certain films, books, magazines, and other forms of entertainment are considered obscene because they portray sex in a very frank way that some people find vulgar and lewd. Obscene material, language, and jokes are considered taboo in polite society. Obscene can also be used to describe something repulsive — like when your friend ate an obscene number of snails at the Bastille Day bash.
Vocabulary lists containing obscene
Speak
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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.
Until then, for about 20 years, it had been in the hands of the Metropolitan Police's Obscene Publications Unit, known internally as "The Dirty Squad".
From BBC • Jan. 8, 2025
Obscene sums of money finance a ceaseless barrage of advertisements that rake our senses raw.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 8, 2022
For example, Jones pointed to the Obscene Publications Act 1959, for which the U.K.
From Scientific American • Oct. 7, 2022
Then, some time around 2020, Apple hired Antonio García Martínez, a former Facebook advertising executive who had written a best-selling memoir, “Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley.”
From Seattle Times • Oct. 15, 2021
Mad with his self-made martyr’s shirt, Obscene, through hatred of obsceneness, He from a pulpit built of Dirt Shrieks his Apocalypse of Cleanness! ibsen.
From The Idler Magazine, Volume III., July 1893 An Illustrated Monthly by Various
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.
