bitter
Americanadjective
-
having a harsh, disagreeably acrid taste, like that of aspirin, quinine, wormwood, or aloes.
- Synonyms:
- distasteful, unpalatable, acrid
-
producing one of the four basic taste sensations; not sour, sweet, or salt.
-
hard to bear; grievous; distressful.
a bitter sorrow.
-
causing pain; piercing; stinging.
a bitter chill.
-
characterized by intense antagonism or hostility.
bitter hatred.
- Synonyms:
- relentless, ruthless, cruel, fierce
-
hard to admit or accept.
a bitter lesson.
-
resentful or cynical.
bitter words.
- Synonyms:
- scornful, sardonic, biting, caustic, acrimonious
noun
-
that which is bitter; bitterness.
Learn to take the bitter with the sweet.
-
British. a very dry ale having a strong taste of hops.
verb (used with object)
adverb
adjective
-
having or denoting an unpalatable harsh taste, as the peel of an orange or coffee dregs Compare sour
-
showing or caused by strong unrelenting hostility or resentment
he was still bitter about the divorce
-
difficult or unpleasant to accept or admit
a bitter blow
-
cutting; sarcastic
bitter words
-
bitingly cold
a bitter night
adverb
noun
-
a thing that is bitter
-
beer with a high hop content, with a slightly bitter taste
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
bitternessnoun
-
bitterishadjective
-
nonbitteradjective
-
overbitteradjective
-
unbitteradjective
-
bitterlyadverb
-
overbitterlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of bitter
First recorded before 1000; Middle English, Old English biter; cognate with German bitter, Old Norse bitr, Gothic baitrs; akin to bite
Explanation
If you usually drink your coffee with lots of cream and sugar in it, you might be surprised at how bitter plain black coffee can taste. Bitter means "having a sharp or harsh flavor." Bitter describes a particular pungent taste, like the sharpness of very dark chocolate (which is sometimes called bittersweet for its mixture of the two flavors). If you imagine taking that bitter taste on your tongue and turning it into an emotion, you've got another meaning of bitter: a resentful, angry feeling. And if you turn that bitter flavor into a physical feeling, you've got an adjective that describes a sharp, unpleasant sensation, like a cold, bitter wind.
Vocabulary lists containing bitter
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 3
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ACT Reading Test: Words to Capture Tone, List 1
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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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.
See Examples For:
Archer’s main competitor in the air taxi space is Joby, a startup based in Santa Cruz that has been entangled in a bitter legal battle with Archer for more than a year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
It’s deliciously nutty and salty, courtesy of the peanut butter, and slightly bitter and acidic, thanks to the dark chocolate.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
But when French President Emmanuel Macron announced the loan almost exactly a year ago, he brushed aside the warnings to celebrate Franco-British relations, 10 years after the bitter Brexit referendum.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
All of this is a rather bitter pill for working women, particularly mothers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
As I wandered up and down the streets, I turned bitter and angry.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Other ways in which we “close the loop” are through syrups, infusions, shrubs, tinctures and bitters.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2024
“There are places using bitters and different things to make a drink that tastes like an old-fashioned, and that is not what we are doing,” she said.
From Seattle Times ● May 5, 2024
They also offer rosé and a crisp Sauvignon Blanc by the glass, but the frozen concoction with bitters was the perfect antidote for Coachella’s striking afternoon sun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
Campfire Bitters New from High Camp Flasks, prepared using Owl & Whale’s 60-day aging process, these bitters infuse a smoky campfire into cocktails like an Old Fashioned, Manhattan and Negroni for the home mixologist.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2023
Shuttled from one specialist to the next, the girl had been prescribed to shun garlic, consume disproportionate quantities of bitters, meditate, drink green coconut water, and swallow raw duck’s eggs beaten in milk.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
His face is bitterer than the cold as Miranda asks him how his apartment hunt is going.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2023
That’s a bitter joke, but no bitterer than the tone of the English master’s sweeping historical drama about the slaughter of a group of peaceful labor organizers at a mass protest in 1819.
From Slate ● Dec. 6, 2019
“Information warfare will grow far bitterer, and that’s something we will have to live with during the upcoming period.”
From Washington Times ● Mar. 5, 2018
It’s hard to say which of them produced the bitterer barbs.
From Time ● Sep. 24, 2015
But there is one injustice bitterer even than that—to be denied the right to work according to one’s ability.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Some of the regime’s bitterest enemies in Miami became its de facto financial supporters as they sent their grandparents money without which they couldn’t survive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
To forget the bitterest chapters of our personal histories can be overwhelmingly tempting when there’s so much to deal with, right in front of us.
From Salon ● May 25, 2026
In 2022 the two men ran one of the bitterest Senate races in recent memory.
From Slate ● Nov. 22, 2024
It had been the NHS’s longest-running and bitterest pay dispute - responsible for hundreds of thousands of cancelled operations and appointments.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2024
Civil war is supposed to be the bitterest of wars, and surely family politics are the most vehement and venomous.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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.
