Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Affecting the organs of taste or smell with a sharp acrid sensation.
- adj. Penetrating, biting, or caustic: pungent satire.
- adj. To the point; sharp: pungent talks during which the major issues were confronted.
- adj. Pointed: a pungent leaf.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Piercing; sharp.
- Specifically — In botany, terminating gradually in a hard sharp point, as the lobes of the holly-leaf.
- In entomology, fitted for piercing or penetrating: as, a pungent ovipositor.
- Sharp and painful; poignant.
- Affecting the tongue like small sharp points; stinging; acrid.
- Sharply affecting the sense of smell: as, pungent snuff.
- Hence, sharply affecting the mind; curt and expressive; caustic; racy; biting.
- Synonyms Sharp, stinging, keen, peppery, acrid, caustic. Piquant, Pungent, Poignant. That which is piquant is just tart enough to be agreeable; that which is pungent is so tart that, if it were more so, it would be positively disagreeable; that which is poignant is likely to prove actually disagreeable to most persons. Pungent is manifestly figurative when not applied to the sense of taste, or, less often, of smell; piquant is similar, but less forcible; poignant is now used chiefly of mental states, etc., as poignant grief, or of things affecting the mind, as poignant wit.
- In ichthyology, stiff and sharp-pointed: as, a pungent spine.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having a strong odor that stings the nose, said especially of acidic or spicy substances.
- adj. Having a strong taste that stings the tongue, said especially of hot (spicy) food, which has a strong and sharp or bitter taste.
- adj. Having a sharp and stiff point.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Causing a sharp sensation, as of the taste, smell, or feelings; pricking; biting; acrid.
- adj. Sharply painful; penetrating; poignant; severe; caustic; stinging.
- adj. (Bot.) Prickly-pointed; hard and sharp.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. strong and sharp
- adj. capable of wounding
Etymologies
- From Latin pungens (stem pungent-), present participle of pungo ("to sting"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin pungēns, pungent-, present participle of pungere, to sting. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It's a strongly-flvoured salad, pretty pungent from the raw garlic and onion, so really letting the veggies marinate (add some cubed up tofu too for yummy protein "sponges"!) as long as possible is key to avoiding a mouthful of fire!”
“However, such a proximate (immediate cause) explanation does not address the ultimate (evolutionary) questions of why cuisines that contain pungent plant products appeal to people and why some phytochemicals are tastier than others.”
“Mrs. Carlyle's writings whatever was of most literary merit or popular interest; but they are still intrinsically worthy of publication, for even her "notekins," as her husband called them, contain pungent particles and happy turns of expression, while adscititiously they deserve attention, because they clear up/[Page vi]/some obscure points in a complicated controversy and help towards a just judgment of two prominent figures in our English Pantheon.”
“Rather it left me with eyes that almost rolled up to the back of my head, as the odor of this could best be described as pungent, which is not a useful feature for a hand sanitizer.”
“My Mas Arai series is very culturally "pungent" -- only certain groups of readers will be attracted to my books.”
“Mr. Palmieri's career traced a restless and inventive path without ever losing its footing in dance-oriented rhythms, always showcasing his remarkable piano playing—characterized by pungent harmonies, stinging dissonances and sheer power.”
“Given the many possibilities for confusion, I agree with Alan Davidson and others that we should refer to pungent capsicums with the original and unambiguous Nahuatl name chilli.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“We recall the pungent still-life of "To Autumn" with its opening imagery of "mellow fruitfulness," "ripeness to the core" and "clammy cells" — a scene suffused with tactile and olfactory sensation.”
“I'm bracing myself to be met by heat, humidity, mosquitoes and what Kerry describes as a pungent odor.”
TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com
“Chilli peppersCapsaicin, the principle "pungent" chemical in chilli peppers, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer actions.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pungent’.
-
GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
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...
-
Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 110 more...
-
CULI - wine-tasting adjectives
In this area of expertise nouns are frequently used as adjectives (almond, bacon, cider, diesel, fennel, fresh-cut hay, wool) or new adjectives are formed (appley, berrylike, citrusy, full-bodied, ...
acetic, acidic, aged, angular, appley, astringent, attractive, austere, berrylike, big, bitter, brawny and 511 more...
-
bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
-
Describing the Taste of Foods
yummy, zesty, piquant, pungent, sharp, spicy, poignant, delicious, ambrosial, appetizing, delectable, heavenly and 194 more...
-
501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
-
GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
-
501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
-
501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
-
food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
-
Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
-
P
letters starting with p
predicament, presumptuous, predilection, plausible, preeminent, plaintive, paragon, partisan, pathological, paucity, pedantic, penchant and 28 more...
-
Kingly epithets
Take one of CharlesFerdinand's excellent Merovingians or Goths, add a "the" and one of these descriptors, and presto, a character for your long-planned spoof fantasy novel.
unlikely, chuckleheaded, aloof, lacklustre, slow, murky, neurotic, clichéd, pediculous, dour, bungling, dandy and 23 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pungent.
reesetee I love Adblock. :-) Jul 20, 2009
asativum I just see ads for women's deodorant, a Trident gum ad with the tagline "Find Cheerful Words Today", and something appealing called "Smelly Washing Machine"... Jul 20, 2009
sarra Gosh, a word I haven't heard for years and now found I newly dislike. The 'ung' makes it sound like the smell of cannabis.
Also, Google ad for flatulence-filtering underwear? Such wonders are there in the world... Jul 20, 2009