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
-
But for the most part, people don’t get the severity.—
Miranda Mullings and Rachel Chang,
Travel + Leisure,
3 May 2025
-
The student's friends took her to a nearby apartment to rest after the fall, not realizing the severity of her injuries.—
Madison E. Goldberg,
People.com,
3 May 2025
Noun
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And this all matches the public’s general hostility to higher rates of immigration to the US over the last few years — which according to Gallup data, seems to still be the case.—
Christian Paz,
Vox,
2 May 2025
-
Trump has pressed both sides to quickly come to a war-ending agreement, but while Zelenskyy agreed to an American plan for an initial 30-day halt to hostilities, Russia has not signed on and has continued to strike at targets inside Ukraine.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
27 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
-
He was released from the hospital on Wednesday after being monitored for three days to ensure no bile was leaking into the bloodstream.—
Michael Russo,
New York Times,
28 Mar. 2025
-
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
Noun
-
Colt has been indicted on 55 felony counts, including four counts of malice murder, according to court documents, and has pleaded not guilty.—
Devon M. Sayers,
CNN Money,
6 May 2025
-
Without it, little remained but his malice, his pettiness, and his insatiable appetite for revenge.—
Jill Lepore,
New Yorker,
28 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to …boffo box office!—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
27 Apr. 2025
-
The focal point of our anger and pain may not even know we are hurt.—
Bryan Robinson,
Forbes.com,
26 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Mordancy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mordancy. Accessed 12 May. 2025.
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