salacious
adjective
sa·la·cious
sə-ˈlā-shəs 
1
: arousing or appealing to sexual desire or imagination
salacious headlines
salacious lyrics
salaciously
adverb
salaciousness
noun
Synonyms
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
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
Who knew that banning books, paying teachers pitiful salaries and threatening them with jail if they were caught with salacious book titles would be the holy grail of student success.
—Letters To The Editor, Orlando Sentinel, 6 Feb. 2025
There is nothing improper in this, unless it can be shown that the letter and the attorney have crossed a line—from asserting claims and demanding relief to committing extortion by threatening damaging public disclosures of salacious allegations that can destroy a celebrity's livelihood.
—Barbara A. Perry, Newsweek, 27 Jan. 2025
Terence Fisher doused the first color adaptation of Holmes’s most famous case with lashings of red and green — which weren’t enough to impress the Conan Doyle estate, which took umbrage with Hammer’s salacious changes to the plot.
—Rory Doherty, Vulture, 24 Jan. 2025
The story did not name the Speaker’s staffer nor the lawmakers who allegedly sent the salacious messages.
—Mychael Schnell, The Hill, 23 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for salacious 
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.
Letters To The Editor, Orlando Sentinel, 6 Feb. 2025
There is nothing improper in this, unless it can be shown that the letter and the attorney have crossed a line—from asserting claims and demanding relief to committing extortion by threatening damaging public disclosures of salacious allegations that can destroy a celebrity's livelihood.
—Barbara A. Perry, Newsweek, 27 Jan. 2025
Terence Fisher doused the first color adaptation of Holmes’s most famous case with lashings of red and green — which weren’t enough to impress the Conan Doyle estate, which took umbrage with Hammer’s salacious changes to the plot.
—Rory Doherty, Vulture, 24 Jan. 2025
The story did not name the Speaker’s staffer nor the lawmakers who allegedly sent the salacious messages.
—Mychael Schnell, The Hill, 23 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for salacious
Dictionary Entries Near salacious
Cite this Entry
“Salacious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salacious. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share