salacious

adjective

sa·​la·​cious sə-ˈlā-shəs 

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

Synonyms

• concupiscent
• goatish
• horny
• hot
• hypersexual
• itchy
• lascivious
• lecherous
• lewd
• libidinous
• licentious
• lubricious
• lubricous
• lustful
• oversexed
• passionate
• randy
• satyric
• wanton

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

Rather than writing it as purely salacious, the creators infused it with real sensuality — and the encounter kindles a burst of creativity for Deborah. —J Wortham, New York Times, 12 May 2024

He’s spent the last several weeks gag-ordered and squirming as his salacious behavior is examined in forensic detail at a hush-money, election-fraud trial in New York. —Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2024

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