adj
crass
kras
adj
1
Coarse, crude, or insensitive, showing a lack of tact or refinement.
"It was crass of him to joke about the layoffs in front of the people losing their jobs."
"The advert was widely criticized as crass and tasteless."
2
Focused on money or material things in a blunt, unsubtle way.
"She saw the merger as crass commercialism dressed up as charity."
How to Use Crass
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishBlunt, tasteless, and lacking any sense of tact — often about money, jokes, or behavior.
Common mistake
Crass describes behavior or remarks, not a person's intelligence — someone can be crass without being unintelligent.
Common pairings
crass commercialism
a crass remark
crass behavior
Word Forms
crasser comparative, crassest superlative
Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Flow — saved to your collection.
Test yourself on “crass”
A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage
→
Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
It was _____ of him to joke about the layoffs in front of the people losing their jobs.
Etymology
From Latin crassus, "thick" or "dense" — the word originally described physical bulk before it came to mean mentally or socially "thick" (insensitive).