Meaning

6 senses
  1. Neat; eloquent; applicable; relevant.

    A poignant reply will garner more credence than hours of blown smoke.

    treffend, zutreffend, relevant

  2. Evoking strong mental sensation, to the point of distress; emotionally moving.

    Flipping through his high school yearbook evoked many a poignant memory of yesteryear.

    ergreifend, packend, eindringlich

    проникновенныйproniknovennyj

  3. (figuratively)Piquant, pungent.

    stechend, streng, pikant

    ре́зкий

  4. (figuratively)Incisive; penetrating; piercing.

    His comments were poignant and witty.

    schneidend, eindringend, spitz

    прони́зывающийpronízyvajuščij, прони́зывающийpronízyvajuščij

  5. (UK, dated)Inducing sharp physical pain.

    schmerzlich, schmerzhaft

  6. (obsolete, usually)Sharp-pointed; keen.

    spitz, zugespitzt

    о́стрыйóstryj

More definitions
  • keenly distressing to the mind or feelings
  • arousing affect

Examples

6 sentences
  1. The poignant ending of the movie made all of us cry.

  2. I discovered a documentary on journalism in conflict zones, it was poignant.

  3. The incident was so poignant.

  4. The eating of delicious food is one of the most intense and poignant pleasures of life.

    deDer Verzehr eines wohlschmeckenden Essens ist eines der intensivsten und genussvollsten Vergnügen des Lebens. — al_ex_an_der

    Source_Benedict_1921 · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. Garrulous as he may have been, that old philosopher made some very poignant arguments about economics and society.

Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 4
sharp-pointed; keen:
evoking strong mental sensation:
piquant; pungent:
incisive; penetrating:
Deutsch
By meaning 6
sharp-pointed; keen:
neat; eloquent; applicable; relevant:
evoking strong mental sensation:
piquant; pungent:
incisive; penetrating:
inducing sharp physical pain:

Origin

From Middle English poynaunt, poynant, borrowed from Anglo-Norman puignant, poynaunt etc.,

From Middle English poynaunt, poynant, borrowed from Anglo-Norman puignant, poynaunt etc., present participle of poindre (“to prick”), from Latin pungō (“prick”). Doublet of pungent.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

more poignant, most poignant
Comparativemore poignant Lesson
Superlativemost poignant Lesson

regular

Synonyms

4 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

4 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
poignant — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto