obscenity

noun

1 the book was banned on the grounds of obscenity:

indecency, immorality, impropriety, salaciousness, smuttiness, smut, lewdness, rudeness, vulgarity, dirtiness, dirt, filthiness, filth, foulness, coarseness, crudeness, grossness, vileness, nastiness, impurity, immodesty, indelicacy, indecorousness, unwholesomeness, scabrousness, ribaldry, bawdiness, suggestiveness, eroticism, carnality, lasciviousness, lechery, licentiousness, libidinousness, degeneracy, depravity, amorality, debauchery, dissoluteness, prurience;

scatology, profanity, profaneness;

rare bawdry, salacity, lubricity.

2 he was an army officer so he knows about the obscenity of war:

atrocity, act of brutality, act of savagery, evil, crime, outrage, offence, abomination, enormity.

3 the men scowled and muttered obscenities:

curse, oath, swear word, expletive, profanity, four-letter word, dirty word, blasphemy, imprecation, malediction, vulgarism, vulgarity;

swearing, bad/foul language, strong language;

informal cuss, cuss word.

obscenity Oxford Dictionary of English