ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsMmordant
ISEE/SSAThard
mordant
Meaning: sharply critical or sarcastic in a biting way
mordant in a sentence
How mordant is used in real sentences:
His mordant account of the election spared neither party.
The playwright used mordant jokes to expose the leaders' hypocrisy.
“A councilman offered a mordant remark about doctors discovering certainty after moving away, but the laughter died when Mara displayed his signed refusal to authorize testing.”
— from the passage The Case She Carried
“One inspector's mordant comment that “economy had produced a masterpiece of silence” was scientifically apt, though his discursive report wandered through parish politics before reaching the alloy.”
— from the passage The Fault in the Bronze
Synonyms for mordant
Other words for mordant — caustic, biting and sardonic — carry the same meaning.
- caustic
- biting
- sardonic
Antonyms of mordant
Words that mean the opposite of mordant:
- gentle
- kind
- complimentary
Where it comes from
From Latin mordere, meaning 'to bite.'
Memory hook
MORDANT humor has a bite, as though its words could gnaw.