Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "vulgar" []

  • Crudely indecent. (adjective)
  • Deficient in taste, delicacy, or refinement. (adjective)
  • Marked by a lack of good breeding; boorish. See Synonyms at common. (adjective)
  • Offensively excessive in self-display or expenditure; ostentatious: the huge vulgar houses and cars of the newly rich. (adjective)
  • Spoken by or expressed in language spoken by the common people; vernacular: the technical and vulgar names for an animal species. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "vulgar" in a sentence
  • "And it was he that might rightly say, _Veni, vidi, vici_; which to _anatomise_ in the vulgar, (_O base and obscure vulgar_!) _Videlicet_, he came, saw, and overcame ..."
  • "And do not suppose, senor, that I apply the term vulgar here merely to plebeians and the lower orders; for everyone who is ignorant, be he lord or prince, may and should be included among the vulgar."
  • "Clear Channel Communications is suspending Howard Stern for what it calls vulgar, offensive and insulting content."