obscenities

Noun

obscenity (countable and uncountable, plural obscenities)

1. (countable) Something that is obscene.
   • Martha wouldn't go into the art museum because, as she put it, "They have obscenities just sitting out, on display!"
2. (countable) An act of obscene behaviour.
   • Bestiality was outlawed as an obscenity in the strongly conservative community.
3. (countable) Specifically, an offensive word; a profanity; a dirty word.
   • Eliza couldn't stand her daughter's music; as she saw it, it was just shouted obscenities and a heavy drum beat.
4. (uncountable) Lewdness, indecency, or offensive behaviour or material.
   • The coalition of religious conservatives was campaigning against, in their view, rampant obscenity in the entertainment industry.
5. (uncountable) The fact of being obscene.
   • 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.1983 February 5, Shawn Towey, “Philly Women Convict Right”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 28, page 1