vulgar
Americanadjective
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characterized by ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste.
vulgar ostentation.
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indecent; obscene; lewd.
a vulgar work; a vulgar gesture.
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crude; coarse; unrefined.
a vulgar peasant.
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of, relating to, or constituting the ordinary people in a society.
the vulgar masses.
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current; popular; common.
a vulgar success; vulgar beliefs.
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spoken by, or being in the language spoken by, the people generally; vernacular.
vulgar tongue.
- Synonyms:
- colloquial
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lacking in distinction, aesthetic value, or charm; banal; ordinary.
a vulgar painting.
noun
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Archaic. the common people.
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Obsolete. the vernacular.
adjective
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marked by lack of taste, culture, delicacy, manners, etc
vulgar behaviour
vulgar language
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(often capital; usually prenominal) denoting a form of a language, esp of Latin, current among common people, esp at a period when the formal language is archaic and not in general spoken use
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archaic
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of, relating to, or current among the great mass of common people, in contrast to the educated, cultured, or privileged; ordinary
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( as collective noun; preceded by the )
the vulgar
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Usage
Terms that are labeled Vulgar in this dictionary are considered inappropriate in many circumstances because of their association with a taboo subject. Major taboo subjects in English-speaking countries are sex and excretion and the parts of the body associated with those functions.
Related Words
See common.
Other Word Forms
- unvulgar adjective
- unvulgarly adverb
- unvulgarness noun
- vulgarly adverb
- vulgarness noun
Etymology
Origin of vulgar
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin vulgāris, from vulg(us) “common people, crowd” + -āris -ar 1
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
