Definition of OBSCENE

obscene

Meanings

Adjective Satellite

  • designed to incite to indecency or lust; -Margaret Mead
    • "the dance often becomes flagrantly obscene"
  • offensive to the mind
    • "the obscene massacre at Wounded Knee"
  • suggestive of or tending to moral looseness
    • "obscene telephone calls"

Adj

  • Offensive to standards of decency or morality.
  • Lewd or lustful.
  • Disgusting or repulsive.
  • Beyond all reason; excessive.
  • Liable to corrupt or deprave.

Verb

  • To act or speak in an obscene manner; to offend.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle French obscene (modern French obscène (“indecent, obscene”)), and from its etymon Latin obscēnus, obscaenus (“inauspicious; ominous; disgusting, filthy; offensive, repulsive; indecent, lewd, obscene”). The further etymology is uncertain, but may be from ob- (prefix meaning ‘towards’) + caenum (“dirt, filth; mire, mud”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweyn- (“to make dirty, soil; filth; mud”)) or scaevus (“left, on the left side; clumsy; (figurative) unlucky”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂iwo-).

Scrabble Score: 11

obscene is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
obscene is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
obscene is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 14

obscene is a valid Words With Friends word