as in bitterness
biting sharpness of feeling or expression
the surprising mordancy with which the two physicians contested each other's claim to having discovered an effective vaccine for polio
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Recent Examples of mordancy
But Lloyd’s version brims with mordancy.
—
Sarah Weinman, New York Times, 10 Feb. 2023
The gray-tint, cross-hatched drawings evoke George Cruikshank and Samuel Palmer, but the mordancy is vintage Sendak.
—The Week Staff, The Week, 17 Oct. 2022
Sarah Weinman, New York Times, 10 Feb. 2023
The gray-tint, cross-hatched drawings evoke George Cruikshank and Samuel Palmer, but the mordancy is vintage Sendak.
—The Week Staff, The Week, 17 Oct. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mordancy
Noun
-
Type 2 diabetes treatments can vary based on the severity of your condition, your lifestyle, and your overall health.—
Julia Ries,
Health,
9 Apr. 2025
-
In some studies, Vitamin A has been shown to reduce the severity of measles and the risk of death from the virus — but these studies were among highly malnourished populations in low-income countries.—
Sara Moniuszko,
CBS News,
8 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Stolarz’s inclination to shout instructions at teammates on the ice, often with serious levels of hostility in the name of competition, comes to him naturally.—
Joshua Kloke,
New York Times,
8 Apr. 2025
-
Datta writes that Indians had faced violent treatment at the hands of Japanese forces, even if the Chinese community bore the brunt of the Japanese hostility.—
H.M.A. Leow,
JSTOR Daily,
7 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
In Canada, modest supply management policies keep farmgate and farmer pay prices higher, while disincentivizing the buildout of fast-paced, crowded and large scale production facilities at the heart of avian flu virulence.—
Errol Schweizer,
Forbes,
24 Mar. 2025
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Everything about the movement surprised political observers: its virulence, its magnitude, its provincial origins, its apparent lack of structure and leadership, and its adamant refusal to be co-opted by existing political parties and unions.—
Arthur Goldhammer,
Foreign Affairs,
12 Dec. 2018
Noun
-
Her symptoms include vomiting up clots of hair, bile and sewing pins; making scary pronouncements in a guttural voice that is not her own; and being unusually attractive to wasps, whose carcasses litter her bedclothes.—
Sarah Lyall,
New York Times,
5 Apr. 2025
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The agency also noted that Zinna had no evidence of infectious disease, trauma, or poisoning, and the rescue canine's stomach was empty except for small amounts of hair and bile, per AP.—
Kirsty Hatcher,
People.com,
17 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Slightly off-topic comments can derail it so far away from the original point, and it isn't always done with malice.—
Peter Suciu,
Forbes.com,
4 Apr. 2025
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To borrow another logical principle, Hanlon's razor: Don't ascribe to malice that which can be otherwise explained by rank incompetence.—
Ron Estes,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Damn, again, my woulda, shoulda anger steams beneath a somewhat placid exterior.—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
13 Apr. 2025
-
So, Joe comes in with a lot of hostility, a lot of anger, a lot of rage for what happened.—
Stephen Schaefer,
Boston Herald,
13 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Mordancy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mordancy. Accessed 21 Apr. 2025.
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