Definition of Taboo

taboo (noun) - a prejudice (especially in Polynesia and other South Pacific islands) that prohibits the use or mention of something because of its sacred nature

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How can taboo be used in a sentence?

  1. In making a word taboo, we up that power tremendously.

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  2. Dilan Esper: The taboo is a SOCIAL one, and it is a good one.

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  3. This once so-called taboo relationship is our focus this week.

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  4. And I understand why this taboo is indeed present in our society.

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  5. This ceremony of taboo, which is common to the whole of the South Sea

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  6. The subject is taboo, and serves the purpose of every taboo, which is ...

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  7. By far, the most important victory for breaking the word taboo comes in Cohen v.

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  8. To break a taboo is to challenge a contest of strength -- that is, to declare war.

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  9. The Seri protect pelicans from themselves by a partial taboo, which is not understood.

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  10. "Sometimes politicians who are willing to break a taboo are rewarded for it," says Sabato.

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  11. She begs him to kill her, that the punishment for breaking the Red One taboo is a week of torture.

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  12. The sanctions by which savage people sustained the taboo were the strongest possible, -- exile and death.

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  13. To exclude it, to cordon it off and make it a taboo is not only foolish but also irresponsible and hypocritical.

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  14. The purpose of the incest taboo is not to keep brothers and sisters from falling in love and living happily ever after.

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  15. In short, those negative precepts which we call taboo are just as vain and futile as those positive precepts which we call sorcery.

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  16. Whatever their endorsement, The New Yorker is a magazine whose first task is to provoke and sometimes the taboo is a way to do this.

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  17. Gohatto-which roughly translates as "taboo" - the homosexuality in that film is subsumed into a genre and a style that was classical.

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  18. I mean, it's completely non-taboo, which is almost why it's difficult to pinpoint in what subtle ways this is affecting relationships.

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  19. A taboo was a crystallized knot of societal fear and must be unraveled, cut through, or smashed if a people were to set themselves free.

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  20. Mr. Cortines also wants to break a taboo against evaluating teachers 'performance and has threatened to reorganize the city's worst schools.

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  21. The incest taboo is strongly reinforced, Wallerstein says, by knowledge of paternity and by the experience of caring for a child since birth.

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  22. What this ad does is break a taboo about looking at someone's infirmity, the unwritten rule that tells you to look away, pretend you didn't notice.

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  23. In today's Western culture, physical contact with strangers is taboo, which is exactly why Richard Renaldi embarked on his 'Touching Strangers' photo project.

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  24. Panaccione said the decision was taken because of the rising number of HIV cases among young people, and to break a taboo still surrounding the use of condoms in Italy.

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  25. The rest of the exhibit explores the notion of "taboo" -- a word first noted in English in the journals of Captain Cook, as he navigated and charted the Polynesian islands.

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  26. The word taboo implies interdiction or prohibition from touching the place, person, or thing tabooed; a violation of which is always severely punished, and at the king's morai, with death.

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  27. Thai government distanced itself Wednesday from remarks in the Minister Kasit Piromya about a need for a more open discussion of what he called the taboo subject of the role of the monarchy in

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  28. The effect on a writer's reputation of crossing a taboo is probably far stronger when its done in their nonfiction or their public comments and is an explicit statement of their personal views.

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  29. Islands and the New Hebrides the word taboo (_tambu_ or _tapu_) signifies a sacred and unapproachable character which is imposed on certain things by the arbitrary will of a chief or other powerful man.

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  30. To break a taboo was not only to incur the wrath of the priests, but of the gods to whom the gift was offered, and who would surely reward the blasphemer for his sin by illness, accident, loss, or death.

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  31. It certainly is passing strange to find critics referring to this solemn and sacred rite which God ordained as a "taboo" -- "the taboo of the household required the circumcision" of the purchased slave child

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  32. The Editor took a stand that by publishing the report he merely attempted to break a taboo prevalent in the Russian Media which do notdelve into the private lives of politicians, but, for this he had paid a heavy price.

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  33. "You can all do so much when you are prepared to stand up against evil, to speak out against injustice, and when you are prepared to break a taboo in society," said the German Football Association president Theo Zwanziger.

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  34. Unlike the use of taboo in, for example, the Sodom story, here the taboo is invoked because those most likely to be offended by it are those least likely to be sympathetic to the ethical stance of the text in which it's used.

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  35. His plan, submitted for parliamentary approval last Friday, would in effect authorize the largest Japanese military deployment in 50 years -- and break a taboo that has underpinned Asian security calculations for much of that time.

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  36. Incidentally, another sign that we are dealing with a taboo is that when it comes to this issue, ordinarily intelligent scientists suddenly lose their ability to think quantitatively and warp statistical hypotheses into crude dichotomies.

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  37. This hotel would be profitable for you twice: first, you can buy it elite multi-room hotel apartments registered in your name in the Israeli registry of shareholders (the so-called taboo), and secondly, you become the owner of immovable property, which will bring you annual solid dividends.

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  38. The spot chosen was immediately marked off with wands by the friendly native priests, who thus consecrated the ground, or placed it under "taboo" -- a sort of religious interdiction, which effectually protected it from the intrusion of the natives -- for none ever ventured, during their stay, to enter within the _tabooed_ space without permission.

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  39. Interviewed for the documentary film "The N Word: Divided We Stand," comedian and social activist Dick Gregory said of those who argue there is no benefit to historical introspection or self-examination: imagine if we decided to turn the Holocaust into "the H word, and made the word taboo: next concentration camps would become the" C Word "- and lynching would become

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Tips for Using taboo in a Sentence

You may have an easier time writing sentences with taboo if you know what words are likely to come before or after it, or simply what words are often found in the same sentence.

Frequent Predecessors

Words that often come before taboo in sentences. For example: "the taboo" or "a taboo"

  • the
  • a
  • and
  • incest
  • of
  • is
  • was
  • are
  • this
  • were

Frequent Successors

Words that often come after taboo in sentences. For example: "taboo ." or "taboo on"

  • .
  • on
  • in
  • and
  • against
  • is
  • to
  • of
  • for
  • subject

Associated Words

Words that aren't necessarily predecessors or successors, but are often found in the same sentence.

  • incest
  • taboos
  • menstruation
  • eyed
  • homosexuality
  • freud
  • tuesday
  • peas
  • nudity
  • sexuality

Alternate Definitions

  • taboo (noun) - an inhibition or ban resulting from social custom or emotional aversion
  • taboo (verb) - declare as sacred and forbidden
  • taboo (adjective) - forbidden to profane use especially in South Pacific islands
  • taboo (noun) - among the polynesians and other races of the south pacific, a system, practice, or act whereby persons, things, places, actions, or words are or may be placed under a ban, curse, or prohibition, or set apart as sacred or privileged in some specific manner, usually with very severe penalties for infraction
  • taboo (adjective) - set apart or sacred by religious custom among certain races of polynesia, new zealand, etc., and forbidden to certain persons or uses; hence, prohibited under severe penalties; interdicted
  • taboo (noun) - a total prohibition of intercourse with, use of, or approach to, a given person or thing under pain of death, -- an interdict of religious origin and authority, formerly common in the islands of polynesia; interdiction
A sentence using taboo