salacious

adjective

sa·​la·​cious sə-ˈlā-shəs How to pronounce salacious (audio)
1
: arousing or appealing to sexual desire or imagination
salacious headlines
salacious lyrics
2
: lecherous, lustful
… have fiercely denounced the book's sketches of melodramatic lovers and salacious partygoers …Casey Greenfield
salaciously adverb
salaciousness noun

Examples of salacious in a Sentence

Lady Worsley's Whim, the story of Lady Worsley and her husband Sir Richard Worsley, is also reconstructed from some well-thumbed texts, in this case trial transcripts and newspaper reports of cases of "Criminal Conversation" which became popular eighteenth-century erotica. Charges … were brought by husbands seeking damages from the purported lovers of their supposedly adulterous wives, and the detail, which needed to be explicit, was frequently salacious. Norma Clarke, Times Literary Supplement, 21 Nov. 2008
From snarky political commentary to salacious "memoirs" that flirt with both fact and fiction, scores of bloggers have gotten the book deal boon—with mixed results at the register. Eunice Lee et al., Hyphen, Winter 2007
There's little difference between the junk mail in your mailbox and the junk e-mail that appears on your monitor, except that the e-mail is often of a salacious nature, e.g., the "hot, live XXX action" available at various dark alleyways on the web. Michael Saunders, Boston Globe, 6 Oct.1997
a song with salacious lyrics the salacious Greek god Pan is generally portrayed as having the legs, horns, and ears of a goat
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Further discontentment also stemmed from Fennell’s general spearheading of the project, given her affinity for the salacious and the fact that the pic is not billed as a modern retelling. Tom Tapp, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2025 Thursday, representation from the suing teams and from NASCAR had an acrimonious hearing in Uptown Charlotte — one replete with salacious internal messages. Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 29 Aug. 2025 The biography is also filled with all other kinds of salacious revelations, like the claim that more than 40 women were once brought to the Duke of York‘s hotel during a stay in Bangkok in 2006. Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 22 Aug. 2025 Equally salacious, many historians prescribe to the idea that Pasolini was assassinated for his political views. Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 21 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for salacious

Word History

Etymology

Latin salac-, salax, from salire to move spasmodically, leap — more at sally

First Known Use

circa 1645, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of salacious was circa 1645

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Salacious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salacious. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

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