How to Use poignancy in a Sentence

poignancy

noun
  • The humor, the poignancy, the sets, the travel, the 1950s.
    Perri Ormont Blumberg, Southern Living, 11 July 2019
  • No Time to Die tries to milk the poignancy from this idea.
    K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 1 Oct. 2021
  • The day will be filled with poignancy and pageantry, tears and smiles.
    Frida Ghitis, CNN, 17 Sep. 2022
  • The bloody day painted the band's set with pain and poignancy.
    Craig Hlavaty, Houston Chronicle, 19 May 2018
  • And why not; there’s poignancy and irony built into the idea.
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2022
  • There was a note of poignancy to the proceedings, of course.
    Doug MacCash, NOLA.com, 3 Nov. 2017
  • But there is a poignancy that comes with the sale of a place into which you’re poured your soul.
    Thomas Farragher, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Apr. 2023
  • The music took on added poignancy when Berry died in March.
    Jim Salter, The Seattle Times, 6 June 2017
  • There’s nothing else like it on earth, and in that there’s poignancy, even hope.
    Longreads, 29 Dec. 2022
  • Its poignancy is in the fact that there will always be a limit.
    K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 14 Dec. 2022
  • To me, sometimes the poignancy of their art is the distance traveled from it and their worst selves.
    David Marchese, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2022
  • These are the roots of my love affair with my favorite team, joy and poignancy.
    Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 30 Aug. 2021
  • And the historic Great Hall only added to the poignancy of the occasion, Nolan said.
    Camilo Fonseca, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Aug. 2022
  • The hand-crafted, stop-motion brings a level of poignancy to the film that maybe CG wouldn’t have.
    Carole Horst, Variety, 24 Jan. 2022
  • There’s a lightness to many of the cues, but also a poignancy that shone throughout.
    Melinda Newman, Billboard, 27 May 2017
  • Which, in turn, undercuts the poignancy of the bonds that the series rests upon.
    Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 June 2024
  • But on Sunday, the day had fresh poignancy with news of the Colorado shooting.
    Chicago Tribune Staff, Chicago Tribune, 21 Nov. 2022
  • The poignancy of the film comes from Meg’s relationship with her body.
    Alisha Acquaye, GQ, 2 May 2018
  • In Woodland’s case, the poignancy rested in his odyssey to become a dad.
    Ron Kroichick, SFChronicle.com, 16 June 2019
  • Now that he's gone, of course, the life-and-death lyrics take on new poignancy, but songs like this assure his legacy.
    Debby Wolfinsohn, EW.com, 27 June 2022
  • The film bears more poignancy now in light of the death of Crowley, who passed away this past March after a heart attack at the age of 84.
    Nick Romano, EW.com, 21 Aug. 2020
  • When the tale shifts into a more somber mode, the performers deepen the poignancy.
    Celia Wren, Washington Post, 18 Apr. 2023
  • That no one knows this now gives the events of this week a strange retrospective poignancy.
    Andrew Kay, Longreads, 17 July 2021
  • The age question adds a certain poignancy to Biden’s quest for reform, in more ways than one.
    Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2024
  • The film is laced with dry humor but also poignancy and notes of melancholy.
    David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Feb. 2024
  • But the play ends with heart and poignancy, as well as the hope that perhaps the family’s final storm has passed.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Jan. 2023
  • The trouble is that, for all the comedy and the poignancy of this central concept, the movie requires a plot.
    Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2023
  • Time waits for no one, which is part of what lends the documentary its poignancy.
    Matthew Carey, Deadline, 14 June 2024
  • The Spectacle Cry isn’t about the tragedy of a scene, or its poignancy, or any specific emotional appeal at all.
    Alison Willmore, Vulture, 12 Feb. 2024
  • That’s not to say there isn’t poignancy in the paradox of a global superstar, adored by millions but saddened by the emptiness inside him, as John puts it.
    David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'poignancy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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