acerbic
adjective
Did you know?
English speakers created acerbic in the 19th century by adding -ic to the adjective acerb. Acerb had been around since the 17th century, but for most of that time it had been used only to describe foods with a sour taste. (Acerb is still around today, but now it's simply a less common synonym of acerbic.) Acerbic and acerb ultimately come from the Latin adjective acerbus, which can mean "harsh" or "unpleasant." Another English word that comes from acerbus is exacerbate, which means "to make more violent or severe."
Examples of acerbic in a Sentence
Zachary Karabell, Newsweek, 9 Mar. 2009
… we probably have no choice but to enjoy Private Lives on its own terms—as a play that exults in its total lack of a public dimension. Coward's acerbic wit, his submerged sensibility, and his clipped semantics actually had a profound influence on the styles of virtually all the English dramatists who followed him …
—Robert Brustein, New Republic, 10 June 2002
… discovery of self-esteem and New Agey conclusions ("I discovered there was a goddess deep inside me") are something that an acerbic comedian like Cho shouldn't embrace without irony.
—Publishers Weekly, 7 May 2001
We want to experience how someone as acerbic as Jane Austen, as morally passionate as Dostoyevsky, as psychologically astute as Henry James makes sense of the chaos of this world.
—Laura Miller, New York Times Book Review, 15 Mar. 1998
the film's most acerbic critics
whispered a steady stream of acerbic comments as the lecturer droned on
Matt Donnelly, Variety, 9 May 2025
His acerbic critique rendered the subject taboo for a generation, says Victor Mair, an expert on Chinese language at the University of Pennsylvania.
—Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 9 May 2025
The vocalist whose acerbic, quick-witted persona on X has become one of his calling cards was at it again a few weeks ago when asked which act will open up his and brother Noel Gallagher’s shows in South America in November.
—Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 1 May 2025
The film, Ephron’s second collaboration with director Mike Nichols, stars an acerbic Meryl Streep as Rachel Samstat, a food writer, and Jack Nicholson as Mark Foreman, a political columnist revealed to be having an affair.
—Marley Marius, Vogue, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for acerbic
Cite this Entry
“Acerbic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acerbic. Accessed 15 May. 2025.
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