poignant

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“
She has words indeed that reach the inmost heart--poignant, overpowering in tenderness and pathos; but she has, also, words that cause the brows to draw together, the mind to pause uneasily, then to cry "Not so!"

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. adjective Profoundly moving; touching: a poignant memory. See Synonyms at moving.
  2. adjective Physically painful: "Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward” (Ambrose Bierce).
  3. adjective Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings: poignant anxiety.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • It's funny, poignant, and deliciously honest with an irresistible contemporary rock / pop score by —  BroadwayWorld.com Featured Content
  • She has words indeed that reach the inmost heart--poignant, overpowering in tenderness and pathos; but she has, also, words that cause the brows to draw together, the mind to pause uneasily, then to cry "Not so!" —  Browning's Heroines
  • Marshall: Christmas can make everything more poignant, our joys more full, our longings more sharp. —  National Review Online
  • I'm amazed that you remembered the name of that tune -- poignant and timely for you. —  The Lady Killers
  • Raising Victor Vargas, remains among the most pointed, poignant, and joyful films about teen love ever made. " —  GreenCine Daily
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

disturb ·  tragic ·  overwhelm ·  agonize ·  mournful ·  profound ·  inexpressible ·  compel ·  intimate ·  pleasurable ·  penetrate ·  unbearable
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English poinaunt, from Old French poignant, present participle of poindre, to prick, from Latin pungere; see peuk- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English poynant, from Middle English poynant, from Old French (and F.) poignant (= Spanish Portuguese pungente = It.pungente, pugnente, from Latin pungen(t-)s, present participle of pungere, prick: see pungent, and cf. point.
 

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/ˈpɔɪnənt/
by American Heritage
by julie hestermann
by julie hestermann

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