Acerbity

//əˈsɝbɪti// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Sourness of taste, with bitterness and astringency, like that of unripe fruit. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    a rough and bitter manner wordnet
  3. 3
    Harshness, bitterness, or severity countable, uncountable

    "acerbity of temper, of language, of pain"

  4. 4
    a sharp sour taste wordnet
  5. 5
    Something harsh (e.g. a remark, act or experience). countable

    "[…] the recollection of that yesterday […] made him bear with the meekness and patience of a true-hearted man all the worrying little acerbities of to-day;"

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  1. 6
    a sharp bitterness wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bitternessacescencyacidacidityacidnessacidulousness

Example

More examples

"An epigram is a short, sharp saying in prose or verse, frequently characterized by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom."

Etymology

Borrowed from French acerbité, from Latin acerbitās (“acerbity; harshness”), from acerbus (“bitter”). See acerb.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.