taboo subjects
Off-limits conversational territory
Taboo subjects are topics considered too sensitive, offensive, or socially inappropriate for open discussion.
What qualifies varies by culture and context—death, sex, bodily functions, religion, politics, and money are common candidates.
Income is a taboo subject at dinner parties.
The phrase often appears when someone is about to broach one: Can we talk about a taboo subject?
- nudityAbsence of clothing
- sex talkDiscussion about intimacy
- fetishismFixation on specific objects
- adulteryMarried person's sexual betrayal
- euthanasiaDeliberate death for relief
blasphemy · sacrilege · bodily fluids · body odor · censorship · off limits · hush hush · suicide · caste · incest · obscenity laws · heresy · bestiality · dirty laundry · family secrets · sin · burial rites · stigma
- censorshipbanned books, censored, banned, book banning, book bans
- sexualitysexual orientation, sexual behavior, erotica, sexual identity, bisexual
- Artistic Freedomartistic freedom, creative freedom, artistic autonomy, creative autonomy, artistic license
- RabelaisianGargantua, carnivalesque, ribaldry, bawdiness, scatology
- transgressive artprovocative art, controversial art, subversive art, radical art, boundary pushing
- Underground Comixunderground press, indie comics
conversational depth/weight
taboo subjectssmall talk
Polite trivial conversation
chitchat · casual conversation · idle chatter · pleasantries · fluff