Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Believing or showing the belief that people are motivated chiefly by base or selfish concerns; skeptical of the motives of others: a cynical dismissal of the politician's promise to reform the campaign finance system.
- adj. Selfishly or callously calculating: showed a cynical disregard for the safety of his troops in his efforts to advance his reputation.
- adj. Negative or pessimistic, as from world-weariness: a cynical view of the average voter's intelligence.
- adj. Expressing jaded or scornful skepticism or negativity: cynical laughter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Same as cynic, 3.
- Having or showing a disposition to disbelieve in or doubt the sincerity or value of social usages or of personal character, motives, or doings, and to express or intimate the disbelief or doubt by sarcasm, satire, sneers, or other in-direction; captious; carping; sarcastic; satirical: as, a cynical remark; a cynical smile.
- Synonyms Pessimistic, etc. (see misanthropic), morose, sarcastic, satirical, carping, censorious, snappish, waspish.
Wiktionary
- adj. of or relating to the belief that human actions are motivated only or primarily by base desires or selfishness.
- adj. skeptical of the integrity, sincerity, or motives of others.
- adj. bitterly or jadedly distrustful or contemptuous; mocking.
- adj. showing contempt for accepted moral standards by one's actions.
- adj. medicine, rare like the actions of a snarling dog.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. believing the worst of human nature and motives; having a sneering disbelief in e.g. selflessness of others
Etymologies
- Originated 1580–90 from cynic+-al. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“His argument is clear: any politician who charms and inspires the voters, who talks in generalities and abstractions, is engaging in what he calls the cynical politics of celebrity marketing, turning himself to into a product.”
“Though Mesa admires the democratic principles on which the U.S. was founded, he opposes what he terms the cynical lack of application of those values, including the denial of due process to Guantanamo detainees under former President Bush.”
“When I'm met with people who wanna remain "cynical" and entertained while the US is slaughtering tens of thousands of people in Asia and ruining a good bit of their own landmass, I either get tongue-tied or abusive.”
“They encounter opposition from other army units, civilians cynical from a government of broken promises, uncaring aristocrats, and corrupt politicians.”
“I realize that being cynical is a way of life for you … but perhaps in the future you will refrain from bastardizing the word “evil” to suit your political needs.”
Will you be camped out at your local bookstore for your copy of “Going Rogue?” « Dating Jesus
“Upbeat but cynical is a perfect description of her voice.”
“They're at risk of succumbing to the deluge of paid lies, voting for candidates who don't represent their values or staying home in cynical resignation.”
The Huffington Post: Paul Loeb: Suppose Your Actions Swung the Election
“It's ever so tempting to look at the Detroit Lions and roll one's eyes in cynical derision.”
Turnaround under Stafford will take more than just a quick fix
“What's cynical is to devise a series of assessments that don't assess anything meaningful; assessments that lead to a perfectly predictable bell-curve distribution of performance, and then build an entire system of accountability, even of pedagogy, based on those fatally flawed assessments.”
The Huffington Post: Alan Gottlieb: Of Civil Wars and Forgotten Words
“How cynical is that: One republican introduced the bill talking on end of life conselling for old people that democrats agreed on in a spirit of bipartisan.”
House Democrat: Health care bill in doubt without public plan
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cynical’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
Psychology
Chapter 1
rigorous, occurrence, maze, divers, intellectual, expansion, all in all, sensation, introspection, radical, orientation, nurture and 174 more...
-
allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
-
GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
-
brian's biffs
melancholy, bucolic, visceral, cacophony, burlesque, exogenous, epiphany, monetization, accretive, opulent, splendid, seismic and 10 more...
-
Subconscious Personal Emotion
That which is disqualified.
crude, harsh, cynical, arrogant, disrespectful, critical, brusque, punitive, negative, judgmental, condescending., nosy
-
September Words-11337
During the month of September, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has...
flabbergasted, discombobulated, inclination, serendipity, savvy, profound, incarnation, myriad, confiscate, audacity, deciduous, adieu and 79 more...
-
What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
-
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3063 more... -
words unknown
repeat!!!
laissez faire, propensity, punitive, explicit, whim, extenuating, distort, gross, grossly, hearsay, dispel, apprehensive and 113 more...
-
Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
-
Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
-
Week 1, Day 1
ignominy, marquee, deter, chariot, stern, perfidy, treacherous, insolent, presumptuous, banish, dubious, livid and 133 more...
-
GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cynical.
Kenaipaul Antonyms of cynical are optimistic, positive, trusting Jan 13, 2012