How to Use obscene in a Sentence

obscene

adjective
  • He spends an obscene amount of money on clothes.
  • He made an obscene gesture at the driver who cut him off.
  • He was accused of making obscene phone calls.
  • The company's executives earn obscene salaries.
  • None of these books are obscene.
    — Peter Greene, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Agnes shielded her eyes and laughed at the obscene majesty of it all.
    — Boris Fishman, Travel + Leisure, 8 Feb. 2026
  • The money schools spend on search firms is obscene, Carr says.
    — John Talty, AL.com, 26 Oct. 2017
  • If the judge finds the book is not obscene, the filing is dismissed.
    — Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, 20 May 2022
  • This tape is strictly for the streets and made to be played in a car at obscene levels.
    — Christopher Claxton, Billboard, 1 Oct. 2024
  • The cost for the two items—more than three hundred dollars—had struck me as obscene.
    — Elif Batuman, The New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2022
  • Her remarks weren’t obscene — at least, no more than anyone else’s.
    — Jazmine Hughes, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2022
  • Beside one of those blandly obscene bidets.
    — Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2025
  • But with all of that new traffic came extra hate speech and obscene content.
    — WIRED, 7 Feb. 2023
  • Somebody has drawn a balloon over her head and has her saying obscene things.
    — Christopher Bonanos, Daily Intelligencer, 2 Mar. 2018
  • What community would that be, and to whom is the film obscene?
    — Elaine Ayala, ExpressNews.com, 12 Mar. 2020
  • The teams were on the field but near midfield when the obscene object was spotted.
    — Paulina Dedaj, FOXNews.com, 23 Aug. 2025
  • The man is being charged with lewd, indecent and obscene acts.
    — Adam Sabes, Fox News, 12 Aug. 2023
  • There have now been 21 fines due to obscene gestures this season.
    — Ryan Morik, Fox News, 7 Dec. 2024
  • The worker said the man honked his horn, rolled down his window and made an obscene gesture.
    — Bob Sandrick, cleveland, 20 Jan. 2022
  • The cost of getting in the building is, largely, obscene.
    — Sean Gentille, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2026
  • The film, which features an all-Asian cast, does not hold back on the vulgar and obscene.
    — Kimmy Yam, NBC News, 7 July 2023
  • The sons say the boys used it to make an obscene gesture to the school librarian.
    — James Walsh, Star Tribune, 24 Mar. 2021
  • The amount of cash being tossed around is obscene, and that’s part of what makes the show guiltily watchable.
    — James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Feb. 2025
  • The department will be in charge of ruling whether books are obscene under the law.
    — Peter Greene, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2023
  • No matter the betting line, the public throws an obscene amount of money on it.
    — Christopher Smith, al, 23 Nov. 2020
  • The victim honked his horn at the man, who responded with an obscene hand gesture.
    — Bob Sandrick, cleveland, 16 Dec. 2022
  • The problem was Boston’s start was obscene.
    — C.j. Holmes, New York Daily News, 28 Feb. 2026
  • Cousins exchanged words with fans, put a hand in one man’s face and made an obscene gesture as fans threw food and drinks at him.
    — Jason Anderson, Sacbee.com, 10 June 2025
  • And third, because of an obscene amount of time pressure to perform quickly.
    — Gianluca Russo, refinery29.com, 12 July 2022
  • In the Miller Test, all three prongs must be met to qualify a work as obscene.
    — Peter Greene, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'obscene.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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