profanity
/pɹəˈfænɪti/US/pɹəˈfænɪti/
profanity noun: the quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt.
Noun
profanity (countable and uncountable, plural profanities)
- The quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt.
- 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.1910, John William Cousin, “Bunyan, John”, in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
- Obscene, lewd or abusive language.
- He ran up and down the street screaming profanities like a madman.
- 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.2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37
- Synonyms:
- swear word, curse word, vulgarity
profanity meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
profanity in Tamil
- நிந்தனை, அபச்சாரம், தூஷணை, கெட்ட வார்த்தை, ஆபாசமான மொழி
profanity in Urdu
- کلمہ کفر, کفر
profanity in Bengali
- অপবিত্রতা, ধর্মনিন্দা, পবিত্রতাহীনতা, অশ্লীল ভাষা, গালাগালি, কটূক্তি
profanity in Malayalam
- അതിക്രമം, ഭക്തിരാഹിത്യം, ധർമ്മനിന്ദ, ഈശ്വരദ്വേഷം
More languagesFewer languages
- profanity in Gujarati
- કુવેણ kuvěṇ
- profanity in Tagalog
- tungayaw
- profanity in Arabic
- تَجْدِيف tajdīf, بَذَاءَة baḏāʔa, قَبَاحَة qabāḥa
- profanity in Malay
- makian
- profanity in Indonesian
- kenistaan, bahasa kasar, bahasa kotor, makian
- profanity in Persian
- بیحرمتی bi-hormati
Examples of profanity in a sentence
- He let out a string of profanities. That acronym is a string of letters. She heard a string of applause from the audience, amid a few strings of laughter.
- He grinned at the profanity that came out of the communicator-speaker.
- What's the best use of profanity in a song?
Synonyms of profanity
Forms of profanity
| plural | profanities |
|---|---|
| alternative form | prophanity |
Origin of profanity
Borrowed from Latin profānitās. By surface analysis, profane + -ity.
Words formed from profanity
Phrases with profanity
Questions about profanity
- What does profanity mean?
- Profanity means the quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt.
- What is profanity in Tamil?
- Profanity in Tamil is நிந்தனை, அபச்சாரம், தூஷணை. See Profanity meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is profanity?
- Profanity is a noun.
- How do you pronounce profanity?
- Profanity is pronounced /pɹəˈfænɪti/ (UK).
- What is the plural of profanity?
- The plural of profanity is profanities.
Words near profanity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: profanity (page history and authors); profanity (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); profanity (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); profanity (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); profanity (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); કુવેણ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-profanity.wav.
Cite this entry: “profanity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/profanity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.