as in grossness
the quality or state of being obscene
the sheer raunch of the movie earned it a NC-17 rating
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of raunch
In 2016, Ariel Levy hung out with Wong, risking her life in the passenger seat of the comedian’s RAV4 and learning about her particular brand of radical raunch.
—
Hannah Jocelyn, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2024
Read: The cruel social experiment of reality TV For its recent seasons, Love Island USA moved to Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, which enabled it to embrace the low-stakes raunch of its foreign counterpart.
—Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 7 Aug. 2024
Harley Quinn is raunch, sweetness, and violence all in one, partly thanks to its assured voice acting (Kaley Cuoco’s Harley is great, but Ron Funches’s King Shark is the heart of the series.)
24.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 1 Aug. 2024
Female viewers appear drawn by the romance and the toned bodies, of course, but also by the entirely consensual nature of the vigorous raunch, the desire for mutual pleasure between partners and the relative absence of macho toxicity.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for raunch
Hannah Jocelyn, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2024
Read: The cruel social experiment of reality TV For its recent seasons, Love Island USA moved to Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, which enabled it to embrace the low-stakes raunch of its foreign counterpart.
—Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 7 Aug. 2024
Harley Quinn is raunch, sweetness, and violence all in one, partly thanks to its assured voice acting (Kaley Cuoco’s Harley is great, but Ron Funches’s King Shark is the heart of the series.)
24.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 1 Aug. 2024
Female viewers appear drawn by the romance and the toned bodies, of course, but also by the entirely consensual nature of the vigorous raunch, the desire for mutual pleasure between partners and the relative absence of macho toxicity.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for raunch
Recent Examples of Synonyms for raunch
Noun
-
There are no great surprises from here on out, though the sheer, lusty grossness of the fallout is occasionally startling.—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
16 Apr. 2026
-
If an exclamation point only signified gore and grossness, this gothic rock opera would more than qualify.—
Rachel Simon,
Vulture,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
His vulgarity, insults and threats do not make America great.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
11 Apr. 2026
-
The values are different now, the lifestyles, the accepted vulgarity, the manners, the view of what’s patriotic and what’s not, the concept of service.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The other funnymen of the time—Milton Berle with his lewd suggestiveness, Jackie Gleason with his baleful roar—did the same shtick over and over.—
David Denby,
New Yorker,
10 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
There’s some rudeness, aggressive conversations, and crudeness, but nothing too over the top.—
Lynnette Nicholas,
Parents,
4 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
The unspoken obscenity of the incident was that fifty dollars was all Monroe ever profited from a calendar that, thanks to reprints, moved several million copies by 1955.—
Joshua John Miller,
Vanity Fair,
9 Apr. 2026
-
Documents state that Ebert returned a few days later to William Yates' house to yell obscenities at his wife and a friend who were sitting outside.—
Anthony Robledo,
USA Today,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
But many seemingly urbane texts also benefited from the intellectual and moral coarseness of their times.—
Christine Smallwood,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
-
The term plant texture refers to the fineness or coarseness, roughness or smoothness, heaviness or lightness of a particular plant.—
David Beaulieu,
The Spruce,
15 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Despite the heavy central theme of chronic illness, there’s a delicious bawdiness to Will There Ever Be Another You, a vulgar juvenilia evoking graffiti-tag genitals or the ding dong ditch scene from Billy Madison.—
Eric Olson
September 23,
Literary Hub,
23 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Over-Nite Sensation is a triumph: a concentrated digest from perhaps the most popular stretch of his career, and a freeze-frame of his compositional flowering and ingenious lyrical ribaldry.—
Daniel Felsenthal,
The Atlantic,
27 Nov. 2023
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Finding liberty in punk artistry, Dury updated the tradition of British music-hall ribaldry and rude folk humor.—
Armond White,
National Review,
3 Aug. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Raunch.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/raunch. Accessed 19 Apr. 2026.
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