Obscenity

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Something that is obscene. countable

    "Martha wouldn't go into the art museum because, as she put it, "They have obscenities just sitting out, on display!""

  2. 2
    an obscene act wordnet
  3. 3
    An act of obscene behaviour. countable

    "Bestiality was outlawed as an obscenity in the strongly conservative community."

  4. 4
    the trait of behaving in an obscene manner wordnet
  5. 5
    Specifically, an offensive word; a profanity; a dirty word. countable

    "Eliza couldn't stand her daughter's music; as she saw it, it was just shouted obscenities and a heavy drum beat."

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    an offensive or indecent word or phrase wordnet
  2. 7
    Lewdness, indecency, or offensive behaviour or material. uncountable

    "The coalition of religious conservatives was campaigning against, in their view, rampant obscenity in the entertainment industry."

  3. 8
    The fact of being obscene. uncountable

    "Henia Flint Goodman, a Holocaust survivor,spoke in outrage against the obscenity of anti-abortion literature which compares a woman's free choice to have an abortion with the crimes of the Nazi state."

Etymology

From obscene + -ity, from Latin obscenitas.

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