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.
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extremely or sharply stinging or bitter; exceedingly caustic.
acrid remarks.
adjective
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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 walls around Equatorial Guinea's notorious Bata prison were freshly painted salmon-pink for Pope Leo XIV's visit Wednesday, but inside there was no masking the acrid smell of sweat and urine.
From Barron's • Apr. 23, 2026
What rare fruit survived to maturity on these little, addled trees was misshapen, acrid, and stubbornly green on one end; in short, it tasted terrible.
From Slate • Apr. 20, 2026
Burnt garlic is acrid and unforgiving; here, it should dissolve into the base of the sauce, barely visible but deeply present.
From Salon • Apr. 7, 2026
Amid fears of a widespread public health crisis, some residents have taken to burning rubbish piles at night, filling the streets with acrid smoke.
From BBC • Mar. 6, 2026
From time to time I peered into the crack but couldn’t gauge anything of its depth for the swirling smoke, which proved to be disagreeably acrid and sulphurous when the breeze pushed it over me.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Definitions 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.
