Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Sourness or acidness of taste, character, or tone.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Sourness, with roughness or astringency of taste.
- noun Poignancy or severity.
- noun Harshness or severity, as of temper or expression.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Sourness of taste, with bitterness and astringency, like that of unripe fruit.
- noun Harshness, bitterness, or severity.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Sourness of taste, withbitterness andastringency , like that ofunripe fruit. - noun
Harshness , bitterness, or severity; as, acerbity of temper, of language, of pain
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a rough and bitter manner
- noun a sharp bitterness
- noun a sharp sour taste
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word acerbity.
Examples
-
In the other countries of Europe, racial and religious acerbity is intensified by economic and political agitation.
-
In the other countries of Europe, racial and religious acerbity is intensified by economic and political agitation.
-
In the other countries of Europe, racial and religious acerbity is intensified by economic and political agitation.
-
Bonaparte a kind of acerbity and bitter irony, of which he long endeavoured to discover the cause.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
-
He perceived in Bonaparte a kind of acerbity and bitter irony, of which he long endeavoured to discover the cause.
-
The only modern pictures that accomplish a higher end than that of pleasing the eye -- the only ones that really take hold of my mind, and with a kind of acerbity, like unripe fruit -- are the works of Hunt, and one or two other painters of the
-
The only modern pictures that accomplish a higher end than that of pleasing the eye -- the only ones that really take hold of my mind, and with a kind of acerbity, like unripe fruit -- are the works of Hunt, and one or two other painters of the
-
Bonaparte a kind of acerbity and bitter irony, of which he long endeavoured to discover the cause.
-
Bonaparte a kind of acerbity and bitter irony, of which he long endeavoured to discover the cause.
-
'acerbity' meant that 'you ate nothing but vegetable food,' and so on all down the list.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.