1
as in pornographic
dealing in or with explicitly sexual material
for his comedy-club performances the stand-up comic's routines are definitely X-rated
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in obscene
depicting or referring to sexual matters in a way that is unacceptable in polite society
the jerk should have known better than to tell an X-rated joke at a company function
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of X-rated
The content of its productions has included legitimate theater, vaudeville, burlesque, striptease, movies (many X-rated), classical music and jazz as well as occasional forays into boxing, bodybuilding and politics.
—
Dan Kelly, Kansas City Star, 21 Sep. 2025
For the first seven years of the rating system (1969-1975), nearly half of the top films (33 of 70) were R- or X-rated.
—Tom Brueggemann, IndieWire, 26 July 2024
What audiences see are silhouettes engaged in a shadow play of entwined hands and arched backs, sensual but not X-rated.
—Rebecca Ritzel, Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2024
Granted, none of these are X-rated, but one of my concerns is that the intensity of this online relationship has grown quite exponentially in a very short time and could very well lead to actual X-rated.
—Amy Dickinson, The Mercury News, 31 Jan. 2024
Keep the red boost light on with your right foot and the Riviera will eventually peak out at 105 mph, although the speedometer is X-rated above 85.
—Don Sherman, Car and Driver, 8 Mar. 2023
Dan Kelly, Kansas City Star, 21 Sep. 2025
For the first seven years of the rating system (1969-1975), nearly half of the top films (33 of 70) were R- or X-rated.
—Tom Brueggemann, IndieWire, 26 July 2024
What audiences see are silhouettes engaged in a shadow play of entwined hands and arched backs, sensual but not X-rated.
—Rebecca Ritzel, Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2024
Granted, none of these are X-rated, but one of my concerns is that the intensity of this online relationship has grown quite exponentially in a very short time and could very well lead to actual X-rated.
—Amy Dickinson, The Mercury News, 31 Jan. 2024
Keep the red boost light on with your right foot and the Riviera will eventually peak out at 105 mph, although the speedometer is X-rated above 85.
—Don Sherman, Car and Driver, 8 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for X-rated
Adjective
-
The illicit chatbots allegedly produced pornographic images.—
Cerys Davies,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Apr. 2026
-
Pamela Martin, 44, and her boyfriend Christopher O’Kane, 41, both pleaded guilty in March to three counts of making an indecent image of a child, two counts of distributing an indecent image of a child, possession of an extreme pornographic image and publishing an obscene article.—
Christine Pelisek,
PEOPLE,
28 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Faced with that reality, our inability to relate to one another becomes almost obscene.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
6 May 2026
-
For instance, the ruling recognized that the government’s need to protect national security might require it to prevent publication of the number and location of troops and that the primary requirements of decency might require censorship of obscene publications.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
29 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
It is estimated that, based on measures of blood glucose, lipids, and other parameters, less than 12% of the adult American population can even be said to metabolically healthy.—
Christopher Duggan,
STAT,
27 Mar. 2026
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For many readers and critics, the perception was that Mansfield was almost writing children’s fiction, since most of her stories are deceptively easy to read, although her themes are entirely adult in both form and content.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 Dec. 2025
Adjective
-
But demeaning our brand through association with vulgar demagogues is a losing strategy.—
Alma Hernandez,
New York Daily News,
1 May 2026
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The word was considered so vulgar that it was left out of early dictionaries and was rarely printed, though Adams says people were certainly using it.—
Harmeet Kaur,
CNN Money,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
But the specific French dispensation—the idea that a man’s erotic life exists outside the moral world of his other obligations, that the wife and the mistress are a civilized arrangement, that desire is sovereign—this mythology did not make the crossing with me, or did not survive it intact.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 May 2026
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The Florida native, who studied sculpture in college and has an academic interest in erotic art and kitsch, spent 15 years with Playboy (partly as a Cyber Girl, the virtual equivalent of the in-print Playmate), and joined OnlyFans in 2020 before purchasing the home she’s dubbed Ho Château.—
Zoey Goto,
Architectural Digest,
6 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“X-rated.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/X-rated. Accessed 8 May. 2026.
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