poignant
- 1Stirring feelings so strong that they border on distress; deeply moving.
Finding her grandmother's handwritten recipe cards brought back poignant memories of their Sunday dinners.
The film's last scene, a father rereading his late son's letters, is almost unbearably poignant.
UsageCommon in a poignant reminder, poignant memories, particularly poignant, all the more poignant.
Similarmoving, distressing
Note
The everyday sense, sitting between moving and distressing: a poignant memory pleases and hurts at once. Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth shows it on small objects: a man shrinking from the poignant intimacy of a pin-cushion and a tray of hairpins.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Edith Wharton wrote The House of Mirth. gutenberg.org
- The novel describes a man shrinking from the poignant intimacy of objects including a pin-cushion and a tray of hairpins. gutenberg.org
- 2Of a remark, question, or look: sharp and penetrating; incisive and directly relevant to the matter at hand.
Similarpointed, incisive, penetrating, sharp
- 3Of a smell or taste: sharp and biting.
Note
Used of food and smells, the word keeps company with its doublet pungent, which reached English from the same Latin verb by a different road. A poignant sauce bites the way a pungent one does.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Poignant and pungent are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org
- Both words derive from the same Latin verb through different routes: poignant through Anglo-Norman and Middle English, pungent directly from Latin. en.wiktionary.org
- Pungent was borrowed from the present participle of that Latin verb. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 4Causing sharp physical pain.
Oppositedull
Note
A dated use, found chiefly in Britain, for pain felt in the body: a poignant twinge in the knee, the poignant sting of nettles. The modern ear hears grief in the word first, so poignant pain risks being read as heartache.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The physical-pain sense is dated and chiefly British. en.wiktionary.org
- 5Usually of a weapon: sharp-pointed and keen.
Note
The literal point every other sense grew from: the word came through Anglo-Norman from poindre, "to prick," and Latin pungō. Spenser could still write of a poynant spear that had made many bleed. Used of weapons the meaning is long gone, but the prick survives as a feeling in the moving sense, which is why the word suggests a sharp ache rather than broad sorrow.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The word came through Anglo-Norman from poindre, meaning 'to prick', ultimately from Latin pungō. en.wiktionary.org
- Spenser described a poynant spear that had made many bleed. en.wikisource.org
- The weapon sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
Practice
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Origin
Latin pungō ("prick") gave Anglo-Norman poindre ("to prick"), whose present participle puignant or poynaunt was borrowed into Middle English as poynaunt or poynant. Pungent is a doublet.