as in curse
a disrespectful or indecent word or expression
was reprimanded for teaching his little brother cusswords
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Recent Examples of cussword
This wasn't an in-the-moment cussword thrown down in the middle of a passionate, blow out fight.
—
Ashley Iaconetti, Cosmopolitan, 30 Aug. 2017
Ashley Iaconetti, Cosmopolitan, 30 Aug. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cussword
Noun
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At the beginning of her music career, Jordan was (rightfully) hailed as a prodigy—a blessing and a curse.—
Grace Robins-Somerville,
Pitchfork,
30 Mar. 2026
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Meeting Rachel’s parents and getting that backstory leads her into discovering this family curse.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Speech-language pathologists work with people who have disorders involving speech, language and swallowing, sometimes from injuries, medical conditions or developmental delays.—
Daniel de Visé,
USA Today,
31 Mar. 2026
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Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of typing without online assistance.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
31 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Kennedy could be heard hurling swears at the Swedish team.—
Andrew Greif,
NBC news,
23 Feb. 2026
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And Boring would be that much closer to its 90,000-rider pinkie-swear.—
Pat Beall,
Sun Sentinel,
20 Feb. 2026
Noun
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And, when the alarm wails hours before dawn, human cusses of angry protest join the chorus of budget appliances failing before their time.—
Virginia Konchan,
The New Yorker,
30 Sep. 2024
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My grandmother extended a ladder up into this tough old cuss of a tree and climbed up, at some risk, to pick the bulging fruit.—
Jim Meddleton,
The Christian Science Monitor,
1 May 2024
Noun
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On some of her livestreams, she can be seen screaming expletives in the face of police officers.—
Brian Maass,
CBS News,
1 Apr. 2026
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Hurley's mother, Christine, was among them and in true Hurley family fashion let a few expletives fly after the last-second win.—
Andrew McCarty,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Police said the man was standing on the roof with a shotgun, pointing the weapon at people working in the backyard of a neighboring home and yelling profanities, including racist remarks.—
Tim Fang,
CBS News,
2 Apr. 2026
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The situation escalated when one member of the group used profanity while gathering their belongings.—
Darlin Tillery,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Mar. 2026
Noun
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As the Oxford English Dictionary notes, the expression not hardly is considered a vulgarism.—
NR Editors,
National Review,
16 Apr. 2020
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The British cringed over new American accents, coinages and vulgarisms.—
Time,
Time,
11 June 2019
Noun
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Tensions rose, neighbors said, to the point that King was heard at times swearing at Kirsten Wells as well as others using vulgar epithets.—
Laura Bauer,
Kansas City Star,
26 Mar. 2026
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The person who shouted the epithet was John Davidson, an activist with Tourette syndrome, who removed himself from the room and later apologized, as did BAFTA and BBC, the show’s broadcaster, which failed to edit out the slur during the broadcast.—
G. Allen Johnson,
San Francisco Chronicle,
1 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cussword.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cussword. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.
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