acridity


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ac·rid

 (ăk′rĭd)
adj.
1. Unpleasantly sharp, pungent, or bitter to the taste or smell. See Synonyms at bitter.
2. Caustic in language or tone: an acrid political campaign.

[From Latin ācer, sharp (probably modeled on acid); see ak- in Indo-European roots.]

a·crid′i·ty (ə-krĭd′ĭ-tē), ac′rid·ness n.
ac′rid·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.acridity - having an acrid smellacridity - having an acrid smell    
odour, olfactory perception, olfactory sensation, smell, odor - the sensation that results when olfactory receptors in the nose are stimulated by particular chemicals in gaseous form; "she loved the smell of roses"
2.acridity - extreme bitternessacridity - extreme bitterness; "the acridity of alkali"
bitter, bitterness - the property of having a harsh unpleasant taste
3.acridity - the quality of being sharply disagreeable in language or toneacridity - the quality of being sharply disagreeable in language or tone
disagreeableness - the quality of being disagreeable and unpleasant
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

acridity

noun
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
References in periodicals archive ?
The Belko Experiment is a lurid horror thriller, but the light in the darkness is Gallagher Jr, whose sweetness cuts through the acridity.
If there's any amount of moisture left in the ube, shelf life decreases proportionately-unless you add artificial flavoring, which tends to produce some acridity. The biggest challenge is getting the proportions of ingredients right.'
The cultivated form is an eddoe type that requires long cooking due to corm acridity. In the south, the cultivated form is a dasheen type.
If we have largely forgotten the physical discomforts of the itching, oppressive garments of the past and the corrosive effects of perpetual physical discomfort on the nerves, then we have mercifully forgotten, too, the smells of the past, the domestic odours--ill-washed flesh; infrequently changed underwear; chamber-pots; slop-pails; inadequately plumbed privies; rotting food; unattended teeth; and the streets are no fresher than indoors, the omnipresent acridity of horse piss and dung, drains, sudden stench of old death from butchers' shops, the amniotic horror of the fishmonger.
The anticipated sweetness of the fruit belies its enduring acridity in the same way that hope is stained by the unrelenting memory of pain and, foreshadowing the next lines of verse, that the promise of poetry's great vision appears to have slipped away.