salacious
/səˈleɪ.ʃəs/adjective
salacious is spelled S-A-L-A-C-I-O-U-S: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 55,433rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, salacious means “Promoting sexual desire or lust” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in salacious?
| Letters | 9: S-A-L-A-C-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 55,433rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is salacious?
Salacious appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 55,433rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce salacious?
- /səˈleɪ.ʃəs/
Salacious has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-salacious.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of salacious
- more salacious comparative
- most salacious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does salacious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Promoting sexual desire or lust.
utterly salacious
- 2
Lascivious, bawdy, obscene, lewd.
salacious gossip
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Salacious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | salace |
| German | anzüglich, aufreizend, heiß, schlüpfrig , lüstern, schmutzig |
| Portuguese | fogoso |
| Spanish | salaz |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does salacious come from?
Derived from Latin salāx, salācis (“provocative, lustful”) + -ious, ultimately from saliō + -acious.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).