Vulgarism

noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A word or term that is considered offensive or vulgar.

    ""Shit" is a vulgarism."

  2. 2
    the quality of lacking taste and refinement wordnet
  3. 3
    A spelling, word, or phrase used in common speech that is considered improper or incorrect for formal communication.

    "We never descended to the vulgarism of a quarrel. People said that neither of us had a heart, but it appears to me that politeness is an excellent substitute."

  4. 4
    an offensive or indecent word or phrase wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
coarsenessbabbittrybad tastebarbarismbarbarousnessbombasticness

Example

More examples

"We never descended to the vulgarism of a quarrel. People said that neither of us had a heart, but it appears to me that politeness is an excellent substitute."

Etymology

From vulgar + -ism.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.