vulgar
Americanadjective
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characterized by ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste.
vulgar ostentation.
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indecent; obscene; lewd.
a vulgar work; a vulgar gesture.
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crude; coarse; unrefined.
a vulgar peasant.
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of, relating to, or constituting the ordinary people in a society.
the vulgar masses.
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current; popular; common.
a vulgar success; vulgar beliefs.
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spoken by, or being in the language spoken by, the people generally; vernacular.
vulgar tongue.
- Synonyms:
- colloquial
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lacking in distinction, aesthetic value, or charm; banal; ordinary.
a vulgar painting.
noun
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Archaic. the common people.
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Obsolete. the vernacular.
adjective
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marked by lack of taste, culture, delicacy, manners, etc
vulgar behaviour
vulgar language
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(often capital; usually prenominal) denoting a form of a language, esp of Latin, current among common people, esp at a period when the formal language is archaic and not in general spoken use
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archaic
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of, relating to, or current among the great mass of common people, in contrast to the educated, cultured, or privileged; ordinary
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( as collective noun; preceded by the )
the vulgar
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Usage
Terms that are labeled Vulgar in this dictionary are considered inappropriate in many circumstances because of their association with a taboo subject. Major taboo subjects in English-speaking countries are sex and excretion and the parts of the body associated with those functions.
Related Words
See common.
Other Word Forms
- unvulgar adjective
- unvulgarly adverb
- unvulgarness noun
- vulgarly adverb
- vulgarness noun
Etymology
Origin of vulgar
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin vulgāris, from vulg(us) “common people, crowd” + -āris -ar 1
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.
The court “is not a place for vulgar barroom talk,” Judge M. Margaret McKeown clapped back in a concurrence joined by 25 fellow judges.
From Los Angeles Times
“But how does this relate to—you said this was something to do with the telephone call you received at work. The one with the vulgar word?”
From Literature
Making a person’s physical appearance the butt of a joke is vulgar apart from any medical condition responsible for said appearance.
From Salon
Samuel Johnson’s “Dictionary of the English Language,” published in 1755, applied the term fashionable to people above the “vulgar” and below “nobility,” a very subjective space.
Olympic men’s hockey team marched in, it was vulgar and fabulous.
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.
