mordant
adjective
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Definition of mordant
(Entry 1 of 3)
mordant
nounDefinition of mordant (Entry 2 of 3)
mordant
verbDefinition of mordant (Entry 3 of 3)
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Synonyms for mordant
Synonyms: Adjective
acerb, acerbic, acid, acidic, acidulous, acrid, barbed, biting, caustic, corrosive, cutting, pungent, sarcastic, sardonic, satiric (or satirical), scalding, scathing, sharp, smart-aleck, smart-alecky, smart-mouthed, snarky, tart
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Examples of mordant in a Sentence
Adjective
a writer famous for her mordant humor a mordant review of the movie that compared it to having one's teeth pulled for two hoursRecent Examples on the Web: Adjective
My favorite Jarmusch films, like Dead Man, Mystery Train, and 2016’s quiet masterpiece Paterson, have the proper empathy for their characters to balance their sometimes mordant outlook. — David Sims, The Atlantic, "The Dead Don’t Die," 14 June 2019 However, anyone who looks forward to curling up for a comfy read with Richard Davenport-Hines’s Enemies Within will suffer an early shock—although the book is in many places funny enough, in its mordant way, to make one laugh out loud. — John Banville, The New York Review of Books, "What Made the Old Boys Turn?," 7 Mar. 2019 The title character of this mordant début novel is a hepatologist navigating a divorce. — Douglas Preston, The New Yorker, "Briefly Noted," 5 Aug. 2018 Every narrative thread that Holsinger spins offers its own mordant drama, starting with complications involving the Emmas’ mothers and their two closest female friends: a quartet whose camaraderie is about to be severely tested. — Michael Upchurch, BostonGlobe.com, "A cautionary tale, richly rooted in local color," 25 July 2019 In particular the subgenre of American short fiction known as minimalism captures … Characterized by the caprice and fatalism of fairy tales, the fiction of Shirley Jackson exerts a mordant, hypnotic spell. — The New York Review of Books, "Joyce Carol Oates," 9 May 2019 Born into a family of yarn-spinners with a penchant for mordant humor, MacLean always had storytelling in his blood. — Christopher Wallenberg, BostonGlobe.com, "‘City on a Hill’ creator Chuck MacLean knows all about the local flavor," 14 June 2019 The authorities who bullied them were at once almost generic types—the strict teacher, the unbending parent, the relentless suitor, the impassive judge—and mordant portraits of the sorts of figures on whom power settled in Kiarostami’s Iran. — Max Nelson, Harper's magazine, "The All-Seeing Eye," 10 June 2019 Here’s the remedy: the second season of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s hilarious, mordant, heartbreaking Fleabag, now streaming on Amazon Prime. — Taylor Antrim, Vogue, "Fleabag’s Season 2 Is as Good as TV Gets," 24 May 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mordant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for mordant
mordant
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of mordant
See the full definition for mordant in the English Language Learners Dictionary