Definition of "profanity"

profanity

noun
countable and uncountable, plural profanities
1. (uncountable) The quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt.
  Quotations
  The overwhelming power of his imagination led him to contemplate acts of impiety and profanity, and to a vivid realisation of the dangers these involved.
  1910, John William Cousin, “Bunyan, John”, in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
2. (countable) Obscene, lewd or abusive language.
  Quotations
  Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.
  2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37