Innuendo is an oblique remark or hint, usually disparaging or suggestive, that conveys a meaning without stating it directly. The audience is invited to complete the implication.

Political attacks, gossip, and flirtatious banter all make use of innuendo. The speaker maintains a degree of deniability while still planting the intended idea. Success depends on the audience’s ability and willingness to draw the inference. When the hint is too subtle, it fails; when it is too transparent, it loses the protective cover of indirectness.

Innuendo differs from open accusation or from simple implication by its typically negative or risqué charge and by the social maneuvering it involves. In literature it can characterize a speaker as sly or malicious, or it can create a climate of suspicion. Legal and ethical discussions sometimes address the harm of innuendo precisely because it is hard to refute a charge that has not been explicitly made.

A meaning conveyed by sideways suggestion rather than by direct statement is an innuendo.