Poignancy

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Poignancy \Poign"an*cy\, n.
     The quality or state of being poignant; as, the poignancy of
     satire; the poignancy of grief. --Swift.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:



  poignancy
       n 1: a state of deeply felt distress or sorrow; "a moment of
            extraordinary poignancy" [syn: {poignance}]
       2: a quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow);
          "the film captured all the pathos of their situation"
          [syn: {pathos}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  89 Moby Thesaurus words for "poignancy":
     acerbity, acidity, acidulousness, acridity, acrimony, asperity,
     astringency, bite, bitingness, bitterness, bleakness, causticity,
     cheerlessness, comfortlessness, cuttingness, dash, depression,
     discomfort, dismalness, distress, distressfulness, dreariness,
     drive, edge, effectiveness, fierceness, force, forcefulness, grief,
     grievousness, grip, guts, harshness, impressiveness, incisiveness,
     joylessness, keenness, lamentability, lamentation, liveliness,
     mordacity, mordancy, mournfulness, nervosity, nervousness, pain,
     painfulness, pathos, pep, piquancy, pitiability, pitiableness,
     pitifulness, point, power, punch, pungency, raciness,
     regrettableness, rigor, roughness, sadness, severity, sharpness,
     sinew, sinewiness, sorrowfulness, sourness, sparkle, spirit, sting,
     strength, stridency, stringency, strong language, tartness, teeth,
     trenchancy, vehemence, verve, vigor, vigorousness, violence,
     virulence, vitality, vivacity, vividness, woebegoneness,
     woefulness