scandalous
adj.adj. describing something that is shocking or morally wrong. You use this when people are very upset or angry about a situation.
adj. causing public outrage or shock due to perceived immorality or illegality. Often used to describe behavior, events, or news that violates social standards.
The politician resigned after a scandalous report was published.
The company faced a scandalous investigation after whistleblowers revealed that executives had been hiding massive debts.
While the novel was considered scandalous upon its initial release in the Victorian era, modern readers often find its themes of social rebellion quite mild.
From Late Middle English scandalouse (“disgraceful, shameful”), borrowed from Old French scandaleux (“scandalous”) (modern French scandaleux), from Medieval Latin scandalōsus, from Ecclesiastical Latin scandalum (“scandal”) + Latin -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; prone to’ forming adjectives). Scandalum is derived from Ancient Greek σκᾰ́νδᾰλον (skắndălon, “offence, scandal; snare, trap”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Pre-Greek or Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump”) (referring to a device for climbing or jumping on, such as might be used by someone setting a trap). By surface analysis, scandal + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, denoting presence of a quality in any degree (typically an abundance), or a relation to the nouns).
Typically used attributively before a noun or predicatively after linking verbs like 'be' or 'seem'.