1
as in curse
a disrespectful or indecent word or expression
a rap song that is filled with profanities
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2
as in vulgarity
the quality or state of being obscene
once notorious for its profanity, that 1950s best seller will strike today's readers as lamentably tame
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of profanity
Scheuer is also being accused of changing menu prices, adding profanity to menus, attempting to disable certain accounts and locking 14 employees out of their accounts over a period of three months.
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Natalia Senanayake, People.com, 31 Oct. 2024
According to federal prosecutors, Arthur Ray Hanson II, 63, of Huntsville, Alabama, left voicemails laced with profanity and racial slurs for Willis and Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat.
—Nina Turner, Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2024
One of them, radio host Sid Rosenberg, directed a profanity at Clinton.
—Jill Colvin, Fortune, 28 Oct. 2024
Officers found a religious statue with profanity written across it in marker.
—Kyla Guilfoil, NBC News, 23 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for profanity 
Natalia Senanayake, People.com, 31 Oct. 2024
According to federal prosecutors, Arthur Ray Hanson II, 63, of Huntsville, Alabama, left voicemails laced with profanity and racial slurs for Willis and Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat.
—Nina Turner, Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2024
One of them, radio host Sid Rosenberg, directed a profanity at Clinton.
—Jill Colvin, Fortune, 28 Oct. 2024
Officers found a religious statue with profanity written across it in marker.
—Kyla Guilfoil, NBC News, 23 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for profanity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for profanity
Noun
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Regardless of whether one sees it as a triumph or a curse, there is no reason to expect that low fertility will be reversed in any major way.Vegard Skirbekk, Foreign Affairs, 6 Nov. 2024
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Just one episode after breaking her family’s curse, Alice lies dead on the ground, and the witches—and especially Teen—are not happy.Erik Kain, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Policy proposals aside, there's been name-calling, vulgarity, and plain old meanness.Jon LaPook, CBS News, 3 Nov. 2024
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Musk shared several anti-Harris advertisements, including one funded by Musk’s pro-Trump political action committee that refers to the Vice President using misogynistic vulgarities.Kali Hays, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Yet research suggests that children up to age 5 can learn and process up to five languages.Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 9 Nov. 2024
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Luckily, just in time, Nick whispers the one word in the (British) English language that instantly turns back the clock.Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 8 Nov. 2024
Noun
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There’s a heavy focus on Asia’s first One&Only spa, featuring a green caviar body exfoliation and an Augustinus Bader facial celebs swear by.Katie Lockhart, Robb Report, 11 Oct. 2024
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Biggest takeaways from 'Hard Knocks' with Bears: An HBO show with no swears?Jim Reineking, USA TODAY, 6 Sep. 2024
Noun
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These days, when people seem eager to scream obscenities at passing strangers, who can believe that anyone would take the trouble to be so subtle with an insult?Judith Martin, The Mercury News, 30 Oct. 2024
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The Wexner opened during the height of the culture wars, when the [Robert] Mapplethorpe show in Cincinnati was getting the museum director there prosecuted for obscenity.Jason Simon, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2024
Noun
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In the postgame clubhouse following Game 5 of the National League Division Series, the expletives flowed as freely as showers of beer and champagne.Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2024
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Finicky, unresponsive, uncomfortable, or unreliable bindings are the bane of any rider’s existence—a thorn in your side that, at best, leads to under-your-breath expletives while strapping in.Drew Zieff, Outside Online, 11 Oct. 2024
Noun
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And, when the alarm wails hours before dawn, human cusses of angry protest join the chorus of budget appliances failing before their time.Virginia Konchan, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024
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My grandmother extended a ladder up into this tough old cuss of a tree and climbed up, at some risk, to pick the bulging fruit.Jim Meddleton, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 May 2024
Noun
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As the Oxford English Dictionary notes, the expression not hardly is considered a vulgarism.NR Editors, National Review, 16 Apr. 2020
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The British cringed over new American accents, coinages and vulgarisms.Time, Time, 11 June 2019
Thesaurus Entries Near profanity
Cite this Entry
“Profanity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/profanity. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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