Poignancy

//ˈpɔɪnjən(t)si// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality of being poignant uncountable, usually

    "The Conan O’Brien-penned half-hour has the capacity to rip our collective hearts out the way the cute, funny bad girl next door does to Bart when she reveals that her new boyfriend is Jimbo Jones, but the show keeps shying away from genuine emotion in favor of jokes that, while overwhelmingly funny, detract from the poignancy and the emotional intimacy of the episode."

  2. 2
    a quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow) wordnet
  3. 3
    a state of deeply felt distress or sorrow wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
pathosacerbityacidityacidulousnessacridityacrimony

Example

More examples

"He was seeing everything and seeing nothing; acutely, quiveringly conscious and yet oblivious to his surroundings by reason of the poignancy of his thought."

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