acerbity
5 synonyms and 5 antonyms for acerbity, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A sour, bitter taste, similar to that of fruit before it ripens.
Synonyms
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun
A sour, bitter taste, similar to that of fruit before it ripens.
Opposites
2. noun
Sharpness or bitterness in tone or manner.
““Well ?” I repeated with some acerbity. I had been wondering for the last ten minutes how many more knots he would manage to make in that same bit of string before he actually started undoing them again.”
Opposites
Etymology
Borrowed from French acerbité, which came from Latin acerbitās (“acerbity; harshness”), itself from acerbus (“bitter”). See acerb.
Full origin of acerbity →