In this thesis, comprised of a theoretical and practical section, pragmalinguistic description of profane words in Croatian language was being examined. The theoretical part shows the general history of profanity and its social impact through the years. Most emphasize was given to the history of profane language throughout Croatian territories. Afterwards, altering definitions of curse words were taken into consideration and examined through the relevant literature, showing the main similarities and differences between them. Differences between profane words, cursing (someone) and cursing (someone over something) were also emphasized and thus the terms “curse words” and “vulgarity” differentiated. Structural and linguistic characteristics of a profane word in Croatian language were determined and their types acknowledged through relevant literature which would later serve for their pragmalinguistic analysis, through the author’s own practical interpretation. The practical part of the thesis has been based on a corpus analysis of swearwords gathered from Croatian everyday speech. The primary focus of the analysis has been to examine the hypothesis about swearing regarded as an illocutionary act by which the addressee has been subject to verbal aggression, and consequently made inferior within the perlocutionary act. According to the corpus- based analysis of the majority of recorded swearwords at the extralinguistic level, it has been found that it cannot be said that there is an illocutionary act of subjecting the addressee to verbal aggression. In addition, the thesis provides a description of the discourse of modern Croatian profanity and the speech situation within which the swearwords occur along with the most common words.