indelicate

/ɪnˈdɛləkət/

Other forms: indelicately

Indelicate things are offensive or rude. If you tell an indelicate joke to your sweet, old-fashioned great-grandmother, it'll make her blush.

Many people would consider the question, "How much money do you make?" to be an indelicate one — it's tactless to ask it. Dirty jokes are indelicate because they're in bad taste, likely to offend someone. The adjective indelicate uses the "not" prefix in- along with delicate, which here means "tactful and considerate."

Definitions of indelicate

1. adjective

   in violation of good taste even verging on the indecent
   “an indelicate remark”

   synonyms: off-color, off-colour

   tasteless

   lacking aesthetic or social taste
2. adjective

   verging on the indecent
   “an indelicate proposition”

   synonyms:

   indecent

   offensive to good taste especially in sexual matters
3. adjective

   lacking propriety and good taste in manners and conduct
   synonyms: indecorous

   indecent

   offensive to good taste especially in sexual matters

   improper

   not suitable or right or appropriate