as in curse
a disrespectful or indecent word or expression
I'm afraid I won't be much help on the trip—the only Spanish I know is a handful of dirty words
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Recent Examples of dirty word
At the Abundance movement’s largest-ever gathering, with its manifesto still on the best-seller lists, its biggest champions wrestled openly with its status as a dirty word in US politics.
—
David Weigel, semafor.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Learn To Talk About Money Without Apologizing One of the biggest mistakes new professionals make is treating salary like a dirty word.
—Sho Dewan, Forbes.com, 27 July 2025
There are a lot of people who see efficiency in agriculture as kind of a dirty word but efficiency saves resources.
—Miami Herald, 10 July 2025
Laura Washington: Donald Trump achieves a notorious distinction in his first 100 days
DEI is under attack by Trump, who sees diversity as a dirty word, even a crime.
—Laura Washington, Chicago Tribune, 28 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for dirty word
David Weigel, semafor.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Learn To Talk About Money Without Apologizing One of the biggest mistakes new professionals make is treating salary like a dirty word.
—Sho Dewan, Forbes.com, 27 July 2025
There are a lot of people who see efficiency in agriculture as kind of a dirty word but efficiency saves resources.
—Miami Herald, 10 July 2025
Laura Washington: Donald Trump achieves a notorious distinction in his first 100 days
DEI is under attack by Trump, who sees diversity as a dirty word, even a crime.
—Laura Washington, Chicago Tribune, 28 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for dirty word
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dirty word
Noun
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With the launch of the Culling Game in the aftermath, 10 colonies from across Japan are transformed into dens of curses as part of a plot orchestrated by the most wicked sorcerer in history, Noritoshi Kamo.—
Nick Romano,
Entertainment Weekly,
7 Nov. 2025
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Her goal helped the club secure its first berth in the NWSL playoffs, snapping a ninth-place curse that had haunted the team since its debut in 2021.—
Tamerra Griffin,
New York Times,
3 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Proponents of the shake method swear that shaking out your laundry will prevent tangling, make drying more efficient, and reduce wrinkles in the process.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
3 Nov. 2025
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Visitors of years past swear by their trick-or-treating hauls from these affluent neighborhoods, specifically the homes of Marissa Meyer (Professorville), Mark Zuckerberg (Crescent Park) and Larry Page and Laurene Powell Jobs (Old Palo Alto).—
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In a similar vein, Timnit Gebru, a computer scientist writing during her time working at Google, warned of the dangers of large language models acting as stochastic parrots, which repeat language patterns without understanding, and in doing so replicate the biases embedded in their training data.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Nov. 2025
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The dust-up stems back to the Spanish singer’s recent appearance on the New York Times’ Popcast, where she was asked about singing in about 13 different languages one her new album Lux and the challenges of communicating with a global audience.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
5 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dirty word.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dirty%20word. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
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