taboo means excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, taboo ranks #885 of 14,308 for Most Malleable Words, #2,382 of 14,297 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,430 of 14,340 for Most Vivid Words, #2,574 of 14,448 for Funniest Words.
taboo is pronounced /təˈbuː/.
Why “taboo” is a great word
Forbidden by social custom, moral judgment, or sacred law. From Tongan tapu ('prohibited, sacred'), from Proto-Polynesian *tapu, first attested in English c. 1777 in Captain James Cook's accounts. Unlike 'forbidden' (which merely states prohibition without the weight of collective belief) or 'profane' (which describes the violation of sacred space rather than the sacred thing itself), taboo names the invisible fence erected by communal dread. It is the unspeakable name of a god, the untouched bowl of food left for ancestors, the doorway through which only initiates may pass—the recognition that certain boundaries exist not because someone decreed them, but because to cross them is to unravel the fabric that holds a world together.
Etymology
Borrowed from Tongan tapu (“prohibited, sacred”), from Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *tambu. Doublet of kapu. First attested in c. 1777.
The p in the Tongan source was misheard as b.
adj
- Excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention.“Incest is a taboo subject in most soap operas.”
- Culturally forbidden.
noun
- An inhibition or ban that results from social custom or emotional aversion.“It is true indeed that a taboo - in order to be a proper taboo - must not rest in the general mind on argument or reason.”
- Something which may not be used, approached or mentioned because it is sacred.
verb
- To mark as taboo.
- To ban or prohibit.“They lunched, but if the subject of Carrados had been tabooed the meal would have been a silent one.”
- To avoid.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- profanation 84% match — The act of profaning; desecration, blasphemous behaviour, defilement. vs taboo →
- sacrilege 84% match — Desecration, profanation, misuse or violation of something regarded as sacred. vs taboo →
- haram 84% match — A sin. vs taboo →
- rahui 83% match — In Māori and Polynesian culture, restriction of access to a place, as a form of taboo. vs taboo →
- folkway 83% match — A belief or custom common to members of a culture or society. vs taboo →
- reverence 83% match — Veneration; profound awe and respect, normally in a sacred context. vs taboo →
- profane 83% match — Unclean; ritually impure; unholy, desecrating a holy place or thing. vs taboo →
- blasphemy 82% match — An act of irreverence or contempt toward a god or toward something considered sacred; an impious act, utterance, view, etc. vs taboo →