Profanity

Quick meaning: Profanity is a noun meaning (uncountable) The quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt.

Meaning

(uncountable) The quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt.

More Meanings

1. (countable) Obscene, lewd or abusive language.

Example Sentences

He ran up and down the street screaming profanities like a madman.

The overwhelming power of his imagination led him to contemplate acts of impiety and profanity, and to a vivid realisation of the dangers these involved.

Mr. [Kash] Patel said he would not tolerate any more “Mickey Mouse operations,” an official on the call recounted. It was one of his few utterances without profanity, the person added.

Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.

Word Forms

• profanities
• prophanity

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include blasphemy, rudeness, profaneness, vulgarity, blasphemousness, impiety.

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