Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Obscene for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "Obscene" — adjective, pronounced /əbˈsiːn/, with the stress on "scene".
Narrator: Obscene means offensive in a sexual way, or shockingly unfair or excessive.
Narrator: In plain English, rude and shocking, or outrageous.
Narrator: It comes from Latin obscenus, ill-omened.
Narrator: A common collocation is "obscene profits", which describes unfairly huge earnings.
Narrator: It differs from "rude", because obscene is much stronger.
Narrator: In a second sense, it criticises waste or greed, as in "an obscene amount of money".
Narrator: Law, media, politics and moderation use the word.
Narrator: So remember: obscene means shockingly offensive.
Speaker A: Why are people angry about the bonuses?
Speaker B: They call them OBSCENE! From Latin obscenus.
Speaker A: That large?
Speaker B: Millions.
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "Obscene gestures", behaviour. "Obscene profits", politics. "An obscene waste of food", ethics.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: Spell it "-scene", "obscene".
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: Offensive is its cousin, indecent its twin, and outrageous an alternative — yet obscene keeps its shocking weight!
Speaker B: Let's use "obscene" in AI prompts — useful for content moderation and journalism.
Speaker A: How for moderation?
Speaker B: Filters.
Prompt: Flag obscene language in these comments for human review.
Speaker A: And journalism?
Speaker B: Balance.
Prompt: Rewrite this headline calling profits obscene into neutral language.
Speaker A: Could it help policies?
Speaker B: Yes, for rules.
Prompt: Write community rules banning obscene images.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: Ethics.
Prompt: Discuss food waste and why some call it obscene.
Obscene — meaning in Arabic & definition More O courses GL Dictionary