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the character or quality of being ; indecency; lewdness.
something , as a picture or story.
an word or expression, especially when used as an invective.
contemporary examples

by the next month, though, emanuel responded to the ads with an obscenity.
democrats go to war art levine september 30, 2009

among these are obscenity, defamation, fighting words, express incitement to unlawful conduct, and threats.
does free speech cover murder fantasies? the supreme court’s definition of a ‘threat’ geoffrey r. stone november 30, 2014

one trucker did shout an obscenity, and a musclebound mechanic told them to go and do something useful like study.
mexican protesters look to start a new revolution jason mcgahan november 20, 2014

coined “obscenity regulations,” on face value they appear to ban material that “depicts or describes s-xual misconduct.”
censored and ‘obscene’ in solitary sarah shourd june 20, 2014

in 1974, he was indicted by the federal government on obscenity charges for distributing deep throat.
on the p-rn film’s 40th anniversary, a thank-you to ‘deep throat’ kristin battista-frazee june 11, 2012

historical examples

they have delusions and hallucinations, with very rapid and incessant changes that range from obscenity to prayer.
the ethics of medical homicide and mutilation austin o’malley

the second power of vulgarity is obscenity, and this vice is like the pestilence.
the call of the twentieth century david starr jordan

when he reached the climax of his tale his language was a rich mixture of blasphemy and obscenity.
a padre in france george a. birmingham

it is certainly true, that every sort of ribaldry and obscenity are encouraged on the chinese stage at the present day.
travels in china, containing descriptions, observations, and comparisons, made and collected in the course of a short residence at the imperial palace of yuen-min-yuen, and on a subsequent journey through the country from pekin to canton john barrow

the obscenity of some of his writings was such that his name has become proverbial for licentiousness.
the new gresham encyclopedia. vol. 1 part 2 various

noun (pl) -ties
the state or quality of being obscene
an obscene act, statement, word, etc
n.

1580s, “obscene quality,” from french obscénité, from latin obscenitatem (nominative obscenitas) “inauspiciousness, filthiness,” from obscenus “offensive” (see obscene). meaning “a foul or loathsome act” is 1610s. sense of “an obscene utterance or word” is attested by 1690. related: obscenities.

behavior, appearance, or expression (such as films and books) that violate accepted standards of s-xual morality. american courts have long tried to define obscenity but without much success. some believe, for example, that any depiction of nudity is obscene; others would argue that nudity in itself is not obscene. (see four-letter words and p-rnography.)