# obscene

> English word · Adjective · IPA /əbˈsiːn/ · frequency rank #15,870

## Definitions
1. Offensive to standards of decency or morality.
2. Lewd or lustful.
3. Disgusting or repulsive.
4. Beyond all reason; excessive.
5. Liable to corrupt or deprave.

## Etymology
From Middle French obscene (modern French obscène (“indecent, obscene”)), and from its etymon Latin obscēnus, obscaenus (“inauspicious; ominous; disgusting, filthy; offensive, repulsive; indecent, lewd, obscene”).
The further etymology is uncertain, but may be from ob- (prefix meaning ‘towards’) + caenum (“dirt, filth; mire, mud”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweyn- (“to make dirty, soil; filth; mud”)) or scaevus (“left, on the left side; clumsy; (figurative) unlucky”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂iwo-). If so, the unexpected extra -s- may be from a variant form of the original PIE root; a similar -s- exists in ex-.

## Easily confused with
- **obscure** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/obscene-vs-obscure)

## Common misspellings (10)
`boscene`, `obbscene`, `obcsene`, `obsccene`, `obsceen`, `obscenne`, `obscnee`, `obsecne`, `obsscene`, `osbcene`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/obscene