vulgar

1 belonging to the class of people of low social or economic rank paintings that appeal to vulgar tastes Synonyms baseborn, common, humble, inferior, low, lowborn, lower-class, low-life, lowly, lumpen, mean, plebeian, prole, proletarian, unwashed, ignobleRelated Words bourgeois, middle-class; plain, poor, simple, working-class; déclassé, down-market, downscaleNear Antonyms eminent, illustrious, notable, prominentAntonyms aristocratic, blue-blooded, genteel, gentle, grand, great, high, highborn, highbred, lofty, noble, partrician, upper-class, upper-crust, wellborn

2 depicting or referring to sexual matters in a way that is unacceptable in polite society a warning about the movie's vulgar language Synonyms bawdy, blue, coarse, crude, dirty, filthy, foul, gross, gutter, impure, indecent, lascivious, lewd, locker-room, nasty, pornographic, porny, profane, raunchy, ribald, smutty, stag, trashy, unprintable, obscene, wanton, X-ratedRelated Words broad, coarse-grained, gamy (or gamey), off, off-color (or off-colored), racy, risqué, salacious, salty, suggestive; barnyard, earthy, scatological; immodest, indecorous, indelicate, low, unbecoming; depraved, kinky, louche, naughty, perverse, perverted, wicked; exceptionable, objectionable, unacceptable, undesirable, unwanted, unwelcome; abhorrent, debasing, disgusting, loathsome, offensive, repellent (also repellant), repugnant, repulsive, revolting; distasteful, obnoxious, unpleasant; blamable, blameworthy, censurable, reprehensible; atrocious, infamous; abusive, scurrilous; hard-core, soft, soft-coreNear Antonyms priggish, prim, prudish, puritanical, staid, straitlaced (or straightlaced), Victorian; correct, decorous, genteel, nice, polite, proper, respectable, seemly; innocuous, inoffensive; acceptable, agreeable, desirable, pleasant, pleasing, welcome; appropriate, becoming, fit, meet, suitable; immaculate, perfect, pure, spotless, virginal; approved, endorsed (also indorsed), sanctionedAntonyms clean, decent, G-rated, nonobscene, wholesome

3 held by or applicable to a majority of the people the vulgar opinion is that the nation is in decline Synonyms common, majority, overall, popular, prevailing, public, received, ruling, generalRelated Words unanimous, universal; pop; everyday, familiar, household, usual, well-known; contemporary, current, present; dominant, predominant, preponderant; characteristic, typical; pandemic, pervasive, prevalent, rife, widespread; communal, sharedNear Antonyms rare, strange, unknown, unusual; distinctive, especial, idiosyncratic, peculiar, special, unique; individual, separate, singular; nonpublic, personal, privateAntonyms uncommon, unpopular

4 lacking in refinement or good taste vulgar behavior shown by someone who's made a lot of money and wants everyone to know it Synonyms common, crass, crude, gross, ill-bred, illiberal [archaic], incult, insensible, low, lowbred, lowbrow, raffish, rough, rough-hewn, roughneck, rude, rugged, tasteless, uncouth, uncultivated, uncultured, unpolished, unrefined, coarseRelated Words boorish, churlish, cloddish, clownish, loutish, ungentlemanly; clumsy, lubberly, lumpish, oafish; inconsiderate, indelicate, insensitive, thoughtless; countrified (also countryfied), provincial, rustic (also rustical), unsophisticated; graceless, inelegant, tacky; animallike, barbaric, barbarous, uncivilized; mannerless, unmannered, unmannerlyNear Antonyms aristocratic, courtly, patrician; elegant, graceful, restrained; considerate, gracious, sensitive, thoughtful; citified, sophisticated, urbaneAntonyms civilized, cultivated, cultured, genteel, polished, refined, smooth, tasteful, ultrarefined, well-bred

5 used in or suitable for speech and not formal writing Latin was once the language of scholars, and English the vulgar language used by the common people Synonyms conversational, informal, nonformal, nonliterary, unbookish, unliterary, vernacular, colloquialRelated Words dialectal, dialectical (also dialectic), nonstandard, regional; incorrect, nongrammatical, substandard, uneducated, ungrammatical, unlearned; slang, slangyNear Antonyms standard, undialectical; correct, educated, genteel, grammatical, properAntonyms bookish, formal, learned, literary