What's the difference between indecency and profanity?

Indecency


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being indecent; want of decency, modesty, or good manners; obscenity.
  • (n.) That which is indecent; an indecent word or act; an offense against delicacy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Perhaps he is instinctively more forgiving about avoiding tax, which some right-wingers always regard as an indecent affront, than the free use of public funds.
  • (2) The retired judge’s report outlines multiple rapes and indecent assaults on children by Savile, which she claims were all “in some way associated with the BBC”.
  • (3) In overturning the fine, the court today found that the commission had long "practiced restraint" in exercising its authority to sanction broadcasters for indecent content, and that the mammoth fine was an improper departure from that.
  • (4) Zimmerman was charged with an offence of sending by public communication network an offensive, indecent, obscene, menacing message or matter.
  • (5) Of those convicted of indecent assault on persons under 16 and of gross indecency with children, 48% had a previous history of psychiatric disorder.
  • (6) In Romania in October a man was subsequently charged with producing and distributing indecent images of children and blackmail.
  • (7) The man behind the hamster story was the British publicist Max Clifford, the disgraced PR guru who was convicted in May of eight counts of indecent assaults on four women.
  • (8) Allen admitted three sexual assaults, one assault by penetration and one charge of distributing indecent photographs.
  • (9) He also faced numerous charges relating to his time working as a “spiritual healer” – including 22 counts of aggravated sexual assault and 14 counts of aggravated indecent assault – and had been bailed for allegedly being an accessory to the killing of his former wife.
  • (10) He was dishonourably discharged from the army on a charge of indecency, roamed Europe as a vagrant, thief and homosexual prostitute, then spent a lengthy period in and out of jail in Paris following a dozen or so arrests for larceny, the use of false papers, vagabondage and lewd behaviour.
  • (11) Three fellow activists from the group, Femen , are on trial for public indecency after demonstrating topless in front of Tunisia's Palace of Justice.
  • (12) George, 39, hung her head as she admitted seven sexual assaults and six counts of distributing and making indecent pictures of children.
  • (13) They have been charged with public indecency and being a threat to public order.
  • (14) It has been a great privilege to have been involved in this sale and we are immensely pleased that all the people who bid for this unique item and indeed the wider public have recognised Turing’s importance and place in history.” Turing, whose work cracking the German codes was vital to the British war effort, was convicted in 1952 of gross indecency with a 19-year-old man.
  • (15) He was prosecuted under section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003, which prohibits sending "by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".
  • (16) On Wednesday, Sboui appeared before an investigating judge in Kairouan who is considering the charges; they include public indecency, desecrating a cemetery and belonging to a band of malefactors seeking to damage public property.
  • (17) In the resulting viral video , “Gertrude” said what worried her most about the Freedom party’s politics was that they brought out “the basest in people – not the decent, but the indecent” – adding “and it’s not the first time something like this has happened”.
  • (18) The X Factor judge Louis Walsh is threatening libel action against the Sun after being told by Irish police that he was no longer under investigation for an alleged indecent assault.
  • (19) Because the legal interpretation of terms like “debauchery” or “public indecency” is so broad, sentences are often maximised by judges who “stack” similarly-worded offences.
  • (20) Alexander Walker, film critic at the Evening Standard, damned the movie as "monstrously indecent", prompting Russell to attack him with a rolled-up copy of his own newspaper.

Profanity


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being profane; profaneness; irreverence; esp., the use of profane language; blasphemy.
  • (n.) That which is profane; profane language or acts.

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.