pierce
verb (used with object)
to penetrate into or run through (something), as a sharp, pointed dagger, object, or instrument does.
is piercing
-
present progressiveof pierce (3rd person singular).present progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or state that is currently taking place in the immediate present.
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 writing is piercing and suspenseful, and Ms. Cline deserves praise for engraving a style recognizably her own.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
However it’s read, Prophete’s vision is piercing and memorable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2025
De Beauvoir’s prose is piercing, aquiline; she is unapologetic about its intellectual demands.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2015
As Dido, she is piercing at many individual moments, muted in others, better in motion than in stillness.
From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2012
Now it is militant, and now observant; now it is fastidious in its scorn, and now it is piercing in its dissection; now it is satire, and now it is melancholy.
From The Contemporary Review, January 1883 Vol 43, No. 1 by Various
