1
as in rudeness
the quality or state of lacking refinement or good taste
our cousins' general vulgarity and poor manners irritate my mother
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in grossness
the quality or state of being obscene
the pointless vulgarity of the joke disgusted her
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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.
Recent Examples of vulgarity
Many of the racist, nativist vulgarities spoken out loud in Paul Thomas Anderson’s marvelous new film One Battle After Another evoke sentiments that, in our world, first fomented online.
—
Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 18 Sep. 2025
The sour stench of the carcasses was a vulgarity almost too great to bear.
—Nathaniel Rich, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
Jude is an erudite man of the people whose hyper-literate intellectualism is only matched by his Chaucer-like vulgarity, and his work has long reveled in an impish fascination with the relationship between art, labor, and technology.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 11 Aug. 2025
That’s almost criminal in a social world of implication, subtext, and discretion, and one prepared to punish its own over the slightest whiff of vulgarity, real or imagined.
—Elle Carroll, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for vulgarity
Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 18 Sep. 2025
The sour stench of the carcasses was a vulgarity almost too great to bear.
—Nathaniel Rich, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
Jude is an erudite man of the people whose hyper-literate intellectualism is only matched by his Chaucer-like vulgarity, and his work has long reveled in an impish fascination with the relationship between art, labor, and technology.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 11 Aug. 2025
That’s almost criminal in a social world of implication, subtext, and discretion, and one prepared to punish its own over the slightest whiff of vulgarity, real or imagined.
—Elle Carroll, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for vulgarity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vulgarity
Noun
-
But yes, Miss Manners agrees that his rudeness justifies your ignoring his comment.—
Judith Martin,
Mercury News,
10 Oct. 2025
-
But Takaichi has taken the strongest stances, decrying the rudeness of foreign tourists and accusing them of abusing the famous deer in Nara.—
Arata Yamamoto,
NBC news,
3 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
He is charged with open and lewd grossness.—
Flint McColgan,
Boston Herald,
24 Oct. 2025
-
In fact, plenty of other things in your home surpass the toilet in terms of grossness.—
Mary Cornetta,
Better Homes & Gardens,
24 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
There’s some rudeness, aggressive conversations, and crudeness, but nothing too over the top.—
Lynnette Nicholas,
Parents,
4 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Brown hurled obscenities at the manager and left the building as the fast-food worker screamed in pain, according to the footage.—
Mitch Picasso,
FOXNews.com,
7 Nov. 2025
-
Nineteenth century reformers and religious authorities condemned the circus as an ungodly, drunken spectacle ripe with gender transgressions and obscenities.—
Time,
Time,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Miami led 20-17 with one minute left at SMU when an unnecessary roughness flag — one of 12 penalties on the day — allowed the Mustangs to pick up a fourth-and-9 en route to a game-tying field goal.—
Stewart Mandel,
New York Times,
2 Nov. 2025
-
However, officials said there was no foul for targeting, but Downs was called for unnecessary roughness.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
2 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
There is plenty of coarseness in American arenas totally unrelated to MAGA or Trumpism, of course.—
Sally Jenkins,
The Atlantic,
11 Oct. 2025
-
An alkaline compound, baking soda is a non-toxic cleaner with a coarseness that works wonders for scrubbing grime, removing difficult stains, and deodorizing stinky odors.—
Lauren David,
Southern Living,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
As the speeches began, chaos consumed the day as air horns were blasted, pages from pornographic magazines thrown down from the balconies and white mice released on to the floor, before the ‘nun’ started dancing up and down the aisles shouting comic profanity.—
Jesse Whittock,
Deadline,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Video from the scene shows an agent wrestling a suspect to the ground and striking him multiple times as bystanders shouted profanity and tried to intervene, with one person attempting to pull an agent away.—
Bonny Chu,
FOXNews.com,
3 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Everything else was affected by its gravitational pull and drawn into the work of dilating it further—even the firms rumored to be at the farthest remove from the crudity, even negative emissions technologies and the market on which their credits circulated.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Nov. 2025
-
But Shelly will still go on about the crudity of newer shows in town, insisting that Razzle Dazzle has an elegant French tone.—
Tom Gliatto,
People.com,
10 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Vulgarity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vulgarity. Accessed 18 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share