Meaning & use
obscenity
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Meanings
nouncountable
A word, gesture, or act that most people find shockingly rude or indecent, especially because it relates to sex or bodily functions.
Grammar: Countable when naming individual words or acts: he shouted obscenities.
Patterns
- shout obscenities
- an obscenity
The driver leaned out of the window and yelled obscenities.
The broadcaster bleeps any obscenity before it reaches the audience.
Someone had scrawled an obscenity on the wall.
noununcountablelegal
The quality of being indecent or morally offensive, or material that breaks the law on public decency.
Grammar: Not used with a: laws against obscenity.
Patterns
- obscenity laws
- charged with obscenity
The publisher was tried for obscenity after printing the novel.
Courts struggled to define obscenity in the new era of the internet.
The film was banned in some countries on grounds of obscenity.
nouncountablefigurative
Something that seems morally outrageous or deeply wrong, even if it is not sexual.
Grammar: Used figuratively to condemn: the obscenity of war.
Patterns
- the obscenity of something
Many people saw the executive's huge bonus as an obscenity during the layoffs.
He spoke of the obscenity of hunger in a rich country.
The waste of food at the banquet was an obscenity.
Word forms
| plural | obscenities |
|---|
Common combinations
- shout obscenities
- Fans shouted obscenities at the referee.
- obscenity laws
- Obscenity laws vary widely from country to country.
- mutter obscenities
- He muttered obscenities when the printer jammed.
- charged with obscenity
- The shop owner was charged with obscenity.
- the obscenity of
- She protested the obscenity of spending so much on a statue.
Synonyms and how they differ
- profanity
- Profanity usually means swearing or disrespect toward sacred things, while obscenity points to sexual or shockingly indecent content.
- vulgarity
- Vulgarity suggests crude, tasteless manners and is milder than obscenity.
- indecency
- Indecency is a broader and gentler word for offending public standards of decent behavior.
- swear word
- A swear word is the everyday name for a single rude word, and has no legal weight.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: obscenity or profanity?
obscenity vs profanity
Profanity is language showing disrespect, often religious, and swearing generally; obscenity leans more to sexual indecency and the law.
Practice
The broadcaster was fined after a guest used an ______ on live television.
Choose one answer.
An obscenity is a rude or indecent word. The other options are words that look similar but have unrelated meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “obscenity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.