Piquant
adj ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Causing hurt feelings; scathing, severe. archaic
- 2 Stimulating to the senses; engaging; charming.
"Their husbands […] leave home to seek for more agreeable, may I be allowed to use a significant French word, piquant society […]"
- 3 Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy.
"Pork Chops with Apple and Port These chops are baked in a piquant sauce containing fruit, honey, cinnamon, lemon and port, all of which reduces to a spicy syrup."
- 4 Producing a burning sensation due to the presence of chilies or similar spices; spicy, hot.
- 1 attracting or delighting wordnet
- 2 engagingly stimulating or provocative wordnet
- 3 having an agreeably pungent taste wordnet
Example
More examples"A four-year-old American tourist was disappointed to realize that, in fact, the Sichuan province is not entirely made of spicy beef, in spite of its famously piquant cuisine."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), present participle of piquer, possibly from Old French pikier (“to prick, sting, nettle”). Doublet of picong. Related to pike.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.