acrid
Americanadjective
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sharp or biting to the taste or smell; bitterly pungent; irritating to the eyes, nose, etc..
acrid smoke from burning rubber.
-
extremely or sharply stinging or bitter; exceedingly caustic.
acrid remarks.
adjective
-
unpleasantly pungent or sharp to the smell or taste
-
sharp or caustic, esp in speech or nature
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of acrid
1705–15; < Latin ācr- (stem of ācer ) sharp, sour + -id 4, perhaps through influence of acid
Explanation
Acrid is almost always used to describe a smell, and it ain't a pretty one. Acrid is the nasty sting that you feel in your nose when you walk by a building that just burned down — it's sulfur mixed with smoke. You can also use acrid to describe someone's tone or general demeanor when they are being nasty. Someone about to do something evil might first give an acrid sneer, or speak in a chillingly acrid tone of voice, or even shudder as if they'd just bit into something with an acrid taste.
Vocabulary lists containing acrid
Lord of the Flies
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 8
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The acrid smell of fire still hangs around.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
For more than a week after the fire began, residents in Boyle Heights and East L.A. endured acrid smoke as firefighters struggled to put out the flames.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
He and his wife left the town for Bordeaux on Saturday, but found that in the city "the air was acrid - it stung your eyes and people were wearing masks".
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Heavy, acrid smoke blanketed the eastern United States on Saturday, marring preparations for the weekend's highly awaited World Cup final to be held in an open stadium in New Jersey.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026
True, generous feeling is made small account of by some, but here were two natures rendered, the one intolerably acrid, the other despicably savourless for the want of it.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
