Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Appealing to or stimulating sexual desire.
  • adjective Characterized by or indicating sexual desire; lustful.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Lustful; lecherous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Having a propensity to venery; lustful; lecherous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Promoting sexual desire or lust.
  • adjective Lascivious, bawdy, obscene, lewd.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characterized by lust
  • adjective suggestive of or tending to moral looseness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin salāx, salāc-, fond of leaping, lustful, from salīre, to leap; see sel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin salāx ("provocative, lustful"), from saliō ("leap, jump; copulate").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word salacious.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I love the sound, the shape, the implications of this word . . .

    November 30, 2007

  • You're right! It sounds slithery and sizzly and sibilant all at once.

    November 30, 2007

  • Sassy.

    November 30, 2007

  • The antonym is incorrect.

    June 12, 2009