prurient
Something is prurient if it focuses attention on sex not in an artistic way or to teach something, but purely to appeal to your baser instincts. If something is prurient, it's sure to offend somebody.
An MTV series that includes explicit scenes might be considered prurient and have censors screaming to have it taken off the air. The word prurient comes from a Latin root that means literally, "to itch,” and you may have heard the medical term pruritus, which means "severe itching." The word can also be used to describe any kind of perverse interest, like onlookers who have a prurient curiosity about the details of a particularly gory crime scene.
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characterized by lust“prurient literature”“prurient thoughts”synonyms: lubricious, lustful, salacioussexymarked by or tending to arouse sexual desire or interest
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Vocabulary lists containing prurient
Looking to build your vocabulary? Then practice this list of 300 "hard words" — the kind that used to be tested on the SAT before 2016. If you're a high school student prepping for the SAT, check out Vocabulary.com's Roadmap to the SAT, which focuses on the vocabulary you'll need to ace today's SAT test.
In the 1950s, a Chinese-American teenager falls in love while members of her San Francisco community face threats of deportation.
This novel traces an unconventional friendship between two boys living in New Hampshire in the 1950s and 60s.