tap / space
Classic usage
Reading level: hard
Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency
Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.
From Middle French obscene (modern French obscène (“indecent, obscene”)), and from its etymon Latin obscēnus, obscaenus (“inauspicious; ominous; disgusting, filthy; offensive, repulsive; indecent, lewd, obscene”). The further etymology is uncertain, but may be from ob- (prefix meaning ‘towards’) + caenum (“dirt, filth; mire, mud”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweyn- (“to make dirty, soil; filth; mud”)) or scaevus (“left, on the left side; clumsy; (figurative) unlucky”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂iwo-). If from caenum, the unexpected extra -s- may be from a variant form of the original PIE root; a similar -s- exists in ex-.
Type a word, a sentence, a book title, or a link to an English article. WordNet and the Classics answer.
A library of classics · a vault of words · instant etymology & meaning
Sign in to use the worksheet generator.
Upload a file or open a document first.
Sign in to see your reading-vocabulary progress.
Your ledger is waiting
Read a chapter and tap the words you meet. Every word you learn is recorded here as your reading vocabulary grows.
—
Sign in to use vocabulary.
No vocabulary lists yet.
No matching vocabulary.
No words in this vocabulary yet.
Click a word in the Reader to add it.
Sign in to use bookmarks.
No bookmarks saved yet.
No matching bookmarks.
Sign in to save and open your own documents.
No saved documents yet.
Open a file or URL in the Reader, then use “Save to My Docs”.
No cards due — add words to a list.
Loading…
tap / space
Classic usage
No cards due — add words to a list.
Loading…
Building today's round…
Recent books: 0 books
Verbault — Brown corpus levels, WordNet definitions, Gutenberg corpus.
Pick a puzzle source to start.
Sign in to use this source.