What's the difference between expletive and profane?

Expletive


Definition:

  • (a.) Filling up; hence, added merely for the purpose of filling up; superfluous.
  • (n.) A word, letter, or syllable not necessary to the sense, but inserted to fill a vacancy; an oath.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A few years back, a survey of 3,000 11-year-olds revealed that nine out of 10 parents swear in front of their children, and the average kid heard six different expletives per week (whoever said profanity was bad for your vocabulary?).
  • (2) Tories warned last night of a plot to destabilise one of David Cameron's most trusted advisers, after details of an expletive-fuelled row with train staff which led to an £80 fine for Steve Hilton, the strategy director, were leaked to Channel 4 News.
  • (3) This from the Wall Street Journal : As they lined up for a team photo at Incheon, Seoul’s main international airport, the players were showered with “yeot,” a traditional candy that is also a common synonym for a Korean expletive.
  • (4) But you saw the spirit in the team tonight, we kept fighting to the end.” For Leicester it was another chastening evening and one that ended with Nigel Pearson embroiled in an ugly row, in which expletives were exchanged, with a fan.
  • (5) On Thursday the FA disclosed the full extent of Ince's actions as it revealed he physically assaulted the fourth official Mark Pottage while using a series of expletives.
  • (6) The players have said to me: ‘We don’t want any Bertie Big,’” Walsh said, leaving out the expletive.
  • (7) One person told Starmer the decision not to prosecute was a "fucking disgrace", sources said, and other expletives were used.
  • (8) F1: Max Verstappen calls Toro Rosso strategy a ‘joke’ in expletive-laden tirade Read more “The team is in good shape, we know we can up our game and put pressure on these guys.
  • (9) One of Rajaratnam's co-accused, fund manager Danielle Chiesi, tells the government's informant on one call that "you put me in jail if you talk", adding that she will be like "Martha [expletive] Stewart".
  • (10) Meanwhile in the American League... Steve Busfield (@Busfield) Benches clear in Detroit as Martinez and Balfour fling expletives but no punches thrown.
  • (11) It was clear that McGregor’s barbs were getting at Diaz, who grew increasingly flustered and struggled to muster replies that went beyond a barrage of expletives.
  • (12) And there will still be a mixture of homegrown material and features glommed from Wired's American edition, alongside an eclectic slate of contributors that includes the distinguished (Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield) and the rabble-rousing (Warren Ellis, the expletive-addicted comic book writer).
  • (13) Whereas an American, for example, has a little blow-hole on the top of their head from which they can release their irritation in an expletive-laced explosion, a Briton has no such release.
  • (14) Players that he knows to express one view in private, usually strident and expletive-laden, switch to bland when the camera rolls.
  • (15) A former UK cabinet minister has said he regrets losing his temper, after being recorded launching an expletive-ridden tirade at a London taxi driver following a visit to Buckingham Palace with his partner, who had just been awarded a CBE.
  • (16) Jeremy Corbyn’s Twitter account appeared to have been hijacked on Sunday night when a series of expletive-laden tweets were posted.
  • (17) The London mayor, Boris Johnson, has marked the last week of election campaigning with an expletive-laden tirade, accusing a senior BBC journalist of talking "fucking bollocks" on a lunchtime TV bulletin.
  • (18) Meryl Streep won for dramatic actress as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, her eighth win at the Globes – and surpised the audience with a string of expletives in her acceptance speech when she fumbled for her spectacles.
  • (19) Sometimes, his movement was not sharp enough and the expletives flowed in his direction and on other occasions, his touch or decision-making was not up to scratch.
  • (20) Instead, Cissé was left unattended to glance into the corner and you could almost hear the offers coming in for McClaren, who had given his players an expletive-filled rebuke after last week’s insipid defeat to Leicester , to pen a study on man-management.

Profane


Definition:

  • (a.) Not sacred or holy; not possessing peculiar sanctity; unconsecrated; hence, relating to matters other than sacred; secular; -- opposed to sacred, religious, or inspired; as, a profane place.
  • (a.) Unclean; impure; polluted; unholy.
  • (a.) Treating sacred things with contempt, disrespect, irreverence, or undue familiarity; irreverent; impious.
  • (a.) Irreverent in language; taking the name of God in vain; given to swearing; blasphemous; as, a profane person, word, oath, or tongue.
  • (a.) To violate, as anything sacred; to treat with abuse, irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate; to pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the Scriptures, or the ordinance of God.
  • (a.) To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to make a base employment of; to debase; to abuse; to defile.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Perhaps he modified his language for the NY Times reporter, but the more likely explanation is that his swearing added nothing and was therefore omitted by the writer or edited out; in America, even in liberal New York, profanities still need to be argued into print.
  • (2) Extensive research among the Afghan National Army – 68 focus groups – and US military personnel alike concluded: "One group sees the other as a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology; and the other group [the US soldiers] generally views the former as a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous, and murderous radicals.
  • (3) Throughout his life, Dad observed the rule that profanity – effing and blinding as he called it – should be confined to workplaces and other all-male venues where men gathered outside the earshot of women and children.
  • (4) McQueen told this tale several times – the words varied from “McQueen was here” to more profane messages, between tellings – and so, years later, Anderson & Sheppard asked the prince’s valet for the suits of that era back, in order to examine the linings.
  • (5) The phychological aspects of language show an antithesis between learned and profane languages.
  • (6) A few years back, a survey of 3,000 11-year-olds revealed that nine out of 10 parents swear in front of their children, and the average kid heard six different expletives per week (whoever said profanity was bad for your vocabulary?).
  • (7) "Not just because it's wrong to expect officers to endure profanities, but it's also because of the experience of the culprits.
  • (8) Here, in the profane world of anti-music, I could be a hater and say: "This is where the rock'n'roll dream dies.
  • (9) This research examined 160 college students' impressions of an audiotape of a female counselor who used profanity with either a male or female client who did or did not use profanity.
  • (10) Inside the cinema-like forum, all was concentrated silence punctuated by an occasional profanity or a murmur of "My God, North lied all along" from the readers.
  • (11) Effects of counselor's profanity and subject's religiosity on acquisition of lecture content and behavioral compliance were investigated.
  • (12) She was praised by many but also criticised harshly as a result of this exhibition, as her unapologetic nudity was seen by many as downright profane.
  • (13) You expect movie ratings to tell you whether a film contains nudity, sex, profanity or violence.
  • (14) One profanity-ridden post concluded with: "John Oliver told me to do this."
  • (15) Motion pictures were not born in religious practice, but instead are a totally profane offspring of capitalism and technology,” writes Paul Schrader in his landmark book, Transcendental Style in Film, in which he isolates two strains of religious film-making: the epics of Cecil B DeMille, presenting religion as spectacle, with teeming hordes, VistaVision, shafts of light, and strangely subdued orgies.
  • (16) She was roundly abused and Lord Carrington , the Economist and many others told her she was being profane.
  • (17) "It has mad amounts of violence, blood and profanity, and no shortage of racist and homophobic things.
  • (18) Boehner and his staff gamely tried to fend off both the specter of a shutdown and a leadership challenge from his caucus’ more belligerent culture warriors – as late as yesterday, a Boehner spokesman was assuring the press that the battle-tested speaker “wasn’t going anywhere.” No doubt, however, that a cursory look at the long train of sober spiritual leaders in his caucus lining up to deliver pointless CSPAN tantrums over the outrages of science prompted the longtime Ohio Congressman to mutter some variant of Good Lord, not this again together with a few well-chosen profanities for good measure.
  • (19) Cultural comprehensions and spirit of time are registered in numerous sacred and profane monuments of art.
  • (20) A profanity-strewn squabble with bewildered old John Motson was trotted out; Fergie time; the hairdryer treatment; the intimidation of some match officials; the trackside battles with Wenger and Benitez.