as in bitterness
a harsh or sharp quality
there's a mean-spirited poignance to the novel's satiric portrait of Hollywood
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of poignance
In this book, however, her collages produce not surprise or poignance but a sense of cutting and pasting, of breathless summary.
—
Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2023
That means none of the bubble-burst poignance that Bartlett and Natasha Rothwell brought as the servant-victims of getaway decadence.
—Darren Franich, EW.com, 24 Oct. 2022
Transcending expectations is its own expectation, and Midnights makes clear, with modest poignance, that Swift has burned out on her own hype.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2022
In the song’s intro, processional drums and a trembling guitar line promised a power ballad with all the poignance of a Steven Spielberg movie.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 4 Oct. 2022
See All Example Sentences for poignance
Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2023
That means none of the bubble-burst poignance that Bartlett and Natasha Rothwell brought as the servant-victims of getaway decadence.
—Darren Franich, EW.com, 24 Oct. 2022
Transcending expectations is its own expectation, and Midnights makes clear, with modest poignance, that Swift has burned out on her own hype.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2022
In the song’s intro, processional drums and a trembling guitar line promised a power ballad with all the poignance of a Steven Spielberg movie.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 4 Oct. 2022
See All Example Sentences for poignance
Recent Examples of Synonyms for poignance
Noun
-
In Jackson, the battle’s over, and those who suffered bites accept their fate.—
Sara Netzley,
EW.com,
21 Apr. 2025
-
This home remedy can help to cool and soothe insect bites.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
21 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
The chronology-bending structure gives the show a bittersweet poignancy, with each moment tainted by its inverse.—
Helen Shaw,
New Yorker,
11 Apr. 2025
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There, a wide playing space where our focus could float, softening in the play’s desert air and in the yearning tenderness of its characters, felt exactly right, and Cromer could conduct with more breath, subtle poignancy, and looseness of grip.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
4 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Roberts has played several positions across the defensive front but has been primarily an edge defender.—
Mike DeFabo,
New York Times,
14 Apr. 2025
-
Six female celebs — including pop songstress Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King and Jeff Bezos’s fiancée, author Lauren Sánchez — are slated to blast off Monday morning in a Blue Origin rocket headed for the edge of space.—
Theresa Braine,
New York Daily News,
14 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Poignance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/poignance. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
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