salacious

adjective

sa·​la·​cious sə-ˈlā-shəs How to pronounce salacious (audio)
1
: arousing or appealing to sexual desire or imagination
salacious headlines
salacious lyrics
2
: lecherous, lustful
… have fiercely denounced the book's sketches of melodramatic lovers and salacious partygoers …Casey Greenfield
salaciously adverb
salaciousness noun

Examples of salacious in a Sentence

Lady Worsley's Whim, the story of Lady Worsley and her husband Sir Richard Worsley, is also reconstructed from some well-thumbed texts, in this case trial transcripts and newspaper reports of cases of "Criminal Conversation" which became popular eighteenth-century erotica. Charges … were brought by husbands seeking damages from the purported lovers of their supposedly adulterous wives, and the detail, which needed to be explicit, was frequently salacious. Norma Clarke, Times Literary Supplement, 21 Nov. 2008
From snarky political commentary to salacious "memoirs" that flirt with both fact and fiction, scores of bloggers have gotten the book deal boon—with mixed results at the register. Eunice Lee et al., Hyphen, Winter 2007
There's little difference between the junk mail in your mailbox and the junk e-mail that appears on your monitor, except that the e-mail is often of a salacious nature, e.g., the "hot, live XXX action" available at various dark alleyways on the web. Michael Saunders, Boston Globe, 6 Oct.1997
a song with salacious lyrics the salacious Greek god Pan is generally portrayed as having the legs, horns, and ears of a goat
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
While some of the salacious gossip has been hurtful, Ovesen does not allow herself to be defined by it. Lynnette Nicholas, Essence, 19 Mar. 2025 Since Lively's claims of harassment burst into the fore following a tense promotion cycle for the film, the ex-co-stars have swapped increasingly hostile and salacious claims, with each side alleging the other made making the movie a nightmarish process. Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 19 Mar. 2025 In the internet culture pantheon, few fanfic writers have ever achieved fame, and those that have sometimes do so for the salacious nature of their work. Megan Farokhmanesh, WIRED, 18 Mar. 2025 The controversial dossier contained salacious and unproven allegations highlighting alleged links between Russia, Mr. Trump and his associates. Jacob Rosen, CBS News, 12 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for salacious

Word History

Etymology

Latin salac-, salax, from salire to move spasmodically, leap — more at sally

First Known Use

circa 1645, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of salacious was circa 1645

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Cite this Entry

“Salacious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salacious. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.

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