1
a
: being, inducing, or marked by the one of the five basic taste sensations that is peculiarly acrid, astringent, and often disagreeable and characteristic of citrus peels, unsweetened cocoa, black coffee, mature leafy greens (such as kale or mustard), or ale
The pill left a bitter taste in my mouth.
bitter beer
bitter chocolates
compare salty entry 1 sense 1b, sour entry 1 sense 1, sweet entry 1, umami entry 2 sense 1
b
: distasteful or distressing to the mind : galling
a bitter sense of shame
2
: marked by intensity or severity:
a
: accompanied by severe pain or suffering
a bitter death
b
: being relentlessly determined : vehement
a bitter partisan
c
: exhibiting intense animosity
bitter enemies
d(1)
: harshly reproachful
bitter complaints
(2)
: marked by cynicism and rancor
bitter contempt
was still bitter about not being chosen
e
: intensely unpleasant especially in coldness or rawness
a bitter wind
3
: caused by or expressive of severe pain, grief, or regret
bitter tears
1
a
: bitter quality
… stepping outside your comfort zone and taking the bitter with the sweet.—
James Poniewoziks
James Poniewoziks
b
: the taste sensation that is peculiarly acrid, astringent, and often disagreeable and is characteristic of citrus peels, unsweetened cocoa, black coffee, mature leafy greens (such as kale or mustard), or ale compare salty entry 2, sour entry 2 sense 1b, sweet entry 3 sense 2, umami entry 1
2
a
bitters
ˈbi-tərz 
plural
: a usually alcoholic solution of bitter and often aromatic plant products used especially in preparing mixed drinks or as a mild tonic (see tonic entry 1 sense 1b)
plural
: a usually alcoholic solution of bitter and often aromatic plant products used especially in preparing mixed drinks or as a mild tonic (see tonic entry 1 sense 1b)
b
British
: a very dry (see dry entry 1 sense 7b) heavily hopped ale
: to an intense or severe degree : to a bitter (see bitter entry 1) degree
It's bitter cold.
Synonyms
Examples of bitter in a Sentence
Adjective
Cocoa beans have a bitter flavor.
The medicine had a bitter aftertaste.
We were struck by the bitter irony of the situation.
His betrayal had made her bitter.
She was still bitter toward her ex-husband.
He's the bitterest man I know.
Noun
The cocktail recipe called for a dash of bitters.
a good selection of bitters
Recent Examples on the WebElizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 16 Apr. 2024
These days, in addition to the bitter herbs, parsley or karpas, symbolizing the fruit of the earth that awakens in spring, are now dipped in saltwater to remind us of the tears of enslavement.
—Joan Nathan, New York Times, 16 Apr. 2024
The new executive team comes a month after Kassan parted ways with UTA in a bitter, public dispute in which each side accused the other of malfeasance.
—Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Apr. 2024
Ukraine had a bitter experience with a less ironclad version of this sort of agreement: a multilateral security assurance, as opposed to a guarantee.
—Samuel Charap, Foreign Affairs, 16 Apr. 2024
Now, the Tokyo company will have to navigate bitter conditions on the northern island of Hokkaido to keep up that success.
—Takashi Mochizuki, Fortune Asia, 15 Apr. 2024
In Florida, in the case involving Trump’s alleged hoarding of classified documents, Judge Aileen Cannon and Jack Smith, the special counsel, have been engaged in a bitter fight over jury instructions—even though there is as yet no jury, let alone a trial date.
—Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2024
Their soil is cold and bitter, terrible for vegetables but ideal for heroin’s raw ingredient: Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy.
—Patrick Winn, Rolling Stone, 13 Apr. 2024
These sulfur-containing chemicals are responsible for cabbage's bitter taste.
—Maggie O'Neill, Health, 13 Apr. 2024
Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2024
Given the choice of the base spirit, a bespoke aromatic bitter to suit their mood and taste, and the preferred garnish, guests engage with the mixologist arriving by the table and mixing the cocktail on the iconic Connaught Martini trolley.
—Matt Ortile, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Apr. 2024
That’s a fairly long amount of time to pick up these individual flavors, which are also the key ingredients of a Manhattan (sweet vermouth, bitters, and a maraschino cherry garnish).
—Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 2 Apr. 2024
On offer in February: Autumn in New Jersey, with apple brandy, lemon, orgeat and bitters, and the Fairbanks, with rye whiskey, apricot and bitters.
—Fritz Hahn, Washington Post, 28 Mar. 2024
In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine apple brandy, lemon juice, simple syrup and bitters.
—John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 20 Feb. 2024
All of our espresso martinis use a cold brew espresso, and all of them have Aztec chocolate bitters added to the recipe.
—Kristine M. Kierzek, Journal Sentinel, 5 Apr. 2024
An old fashioned is whiskey cocktail containing sugar, bitters and carbonated water.
—Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 Mar. 2024
Cocktails range between $9 and $13 and include a variety of mules, an espresso martini and signature cocktails like Bad to the Bone, made with Casamigos reposado, agave nectar and aromatic bitters.
—The Arizona Republic, 27 Feb. 2024
Eric Velasco, al, 23 Apr. 2020
This grape is extremely approachable, with lots of fruit flavor and balanced dryness, due to the low tannins, which are the drying or bittering agent in many wines.
—Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 7 Nov. 2019
With all the ABVs and bittering units, barrel sizes and batch numbers, a beer bottle’s label can often read like the back of a baseball card.
—William Bostwick, WSJ, 8 Aug. 2018
The liqueur puts Indiana persimmons front and center while adding traditional bittering agents like rhubarb root and bitter orange peel, with cardamom and spearmint offering added complexity.
—Kenney Marlatt, chicagotribune.com, 30 May 2018
Another hop, typically grown in the Southern Hemisphere and used largely as a bittering agent, presented big, fruit flavors more like traditional West Coast hops.
—Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian, 21 May 2018
Those are made employing the still somewhat suspicious American practice of adding bittering hops to the mix, but there's nothing aggressive or even untoward about them.
—Mike Sula, Chicago Reader, 22 Mar. 2018
Night Shift built Nite Lite similarly, adding real corn (as opposed to corn syrup or rice syrup) and brewing with a touch of Saaz hops, the classic bittering agent in a Czech pilsner.
—Gary Dzen, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Mar. 2018
Two grants for a total of $135,154 went to Pennsylvania State University for projects involving hops, which are the bittering agent in beer.
—Harold Brubaker, Philly.com, 1 Mar. 2018
Chris Gorski, Discover Magazine, 28 Jan. 2023
This mutation might even be an evolutionary remnant of a once-crucial survival mechanism to avoid bitter-tasting toxic plants and animals.
—Kareem Clark, Discover Magazine, 1 Nov. 2021
Do not let this sadness, this fear, rage turn you bitter towards our world.
—Kathleen Foody, BostonGlobe.com, 8 July 2022
Shake out every last drop from your previous pot to keep the next round from turning bitter.
—Max Falkowitz, Bon Appétit, 5 May 2022
Two-thirds of 137 participants in the Phase 2 trial received AMX0035, a bitter-tasting powder mixed with water to be drunk or ingested through a feeding tube twice daily.
—New York Times, 30 Mar. 2022
The ingredients for — and method of making — the crisp, bright and bitter-leaning drink lie directly in its name.
—Rebekah Peppler, Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2022
Wormwood is a European plant that yields a bitter-tasting oil but contains neither worm nor wood.
—Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 June 2021
The benefit to squeezers is more control over the juicing process, so your end result should be pure, delicious juice with no bitter-tasting peel oil.
—Laura Duerr, chicagotribune.com, 13 Mar. 2021
Adjective
While Israel and Iran have been enemies since the late 1970s, the bitter conflict has long been confined to secret assassinations, audacious cyberattacks, nuclear sabotage and war-by-proxy.
—Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 16 Apr. 2024
These days, in addition to the bitter herbs, parsley or karpas, symbolizing the fruit of the earth that awakens in spring, are now dipped in saltwater to remind us of the tears of enslavement.
—Joan Nathan, New York Times, 16 Apr. 2024
The new executive team comes a month after Kassan parted ways with UTA in a bitter, public dispute in which each side accused the other of malfeasance.
—Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Apr. 2024
Ukraine had a bitter experience with a less ironclad version of this sort of agreement: a multilateral security assurance, as opposed to a guarantee.
—Samuel Charap, Foreign Affairs, 16 Apr. 2024
Now, the Tokyo company will have to navigate bitter conditions on the northern island of Hokkaido to keep up that success.
—Takashi Mochizuki, Fortune Asia, 15 Apr. 2024
In Florida, in the case involving Trump’s alleged hoarding of classified documents, Judge Aileen Cannon and Jack Smith, the special counsel, have been engaged in a bitter fight over jury instructions—even though there is as yet no jury, let alone a trial date.
—Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2024
Their soil is cold and bitter, terrible for vegetables but ideal for heroin’s raw ingredient: Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy.
—Patrick Winn, Rolling Stone, 13 Apr. 2024
These sulfur-containing chemicals are responsible for cabbage's bitter taste.
—Maggie O'Neill, Health, 13 Apr. 2024
Noun
At the opposite end — my end — is a martini variation of sake and shochu punctuated with dry vermouth, yuzu bitters and peppercorns.
—Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2024
Given the choice of the base spirit, a bespoke aromatic bitter to suit their mood and taste, and the preferred garnish, guests engage with the mixologist arriving by the table and mixing the cocktail on the iconic Connaught Martini trolley.
—Matt Ortile, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Apr. 2024
That’s a fairly long amount of time to pick up these individual flavors, which are also the key ingredients of a Manhattan (sweet vermouth, bitters, and a maraschino cherry garnish).
—Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 2 Apr. 2024
On offer in February: Autumn in New Jersey, with apple brandy, lemon, orgeat and bitters, and the Fairbanks, with rye whiskey, apricot and bitters.
—Fritz Hahn, Washington Post, 28 Mar. 2024
In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine apple brandy, lemon juice, simple syrup and bitters.
—John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 20 Feb. 2024
All of our espresso martinis use a cold brew espresso, and all of them have Aztec chocolate bitters added to the recipe.
—Kristine M. Kierzek, Journal Sentinel, 5 Apr. 2024
An old fashioned is whiskey cocktail containing sugar, bitters and carbonated water.
—Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 Mar. 2024
Cocktails range between $9 and $13 and include a variety of mules, an espresso martini and signature cocktails like Bad to the Bone, made with Casamigos reposado, agave nectar and aromatic bitters.
—The Arizona Republic, 27 Feb. 2024
Verb
Most Beach Club beers, like Mango Colada with coconut and lime, have minimal amounts of bittering hops.
—Eric Velasco, al, 23 Apr. 2020
This grape is extremely approachable, with lots of fruit flavor and balanced dryness, due to the low tannins, which are the drying or bittering agent in many wines.
—Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 7 Nov. 2019
With all the ABVs and bittering units, barrel sizes and batch numbers, a beer bottle’s label can often read like the back of a baseball card.
—William Bostwick, WSJ, 8 Aug. 2018
The liqueur puts Indiana persimmons front and center while adding traditional bittering agents like rhubarb root and bitter orange peel, with cardamom and spearmint offering added complexity.
—Kenney Marlatt, chicagotribune.com, 30 May 2018
Another hop, typically grown in the Southern Hemisphere and used largely as a bittering agent, presented big, fruit flavors more like traditional West Coast hops.
—Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian, 21 May 2018
Those are made employing the still somewhat suspicious American practice of adding bittering hops to the mix, but there's nothing aggressive or even untoward about them.
—Mike Sula, Chicago Reader, 22 Mar. 2018
Night Shift built Nite Lite similarly, adding real corn (as opposed to corn syrup or rice syrup) and brewing with a touch of Saaz hops, the classic bittering agent in a Czech pilsner.
—Gary Dzen, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Mar. 2018
Two grants for a total of $135,154 went to Pennsylvania State University for projects involving hops, which are the bittering agent in beer.
—Harold Brubaker, Philly.com, 1 Mar. 2018
Adverb
To see whether an individual’s diet affects the composition of its saliva, researchers gathered saliva from rats habituated to a diet including bitter-tasting quinine.
—Chris Gorski, Discover Magazine, 28 Jan. 2023
This mutation might even be an evolutionary remnant of a once-crucial survival mechanism to avoid bitter-tasting toxic plants and animals.
—Kareem Clark, Discover Magazine, 1 Nov. 2021
Do not let this sadness, this fear, rage turn you bitter towards our world.
—Kathleen Foody, BostonGlobe.com, 8 July 2022
Shake out every last drop from your previous pot to keep the next round from turning bitter.
—Max Falkowitz, Bon Appétit, 5 May 2022
Two-thirds of 137 participants in the Phase 2 trial received AMX0035, a bitter-tasting powder mixed with water to be drunk or ingested through a feeding tube twice daily.
—New York Times, 30 Mar. 2022
The ingredients for — and method of making — the crisp, bright and bitter-leaning drink lie directly in its name.
—Rebekah Peppler, Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2022
Wormwood is a European plant that yields a bitter-tasting oil but contains neither worm nor wood.
—Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 June 2021
The benefit to squeezers is more control over the juicing process, so your end result should be pure, delicious juice with no bitter-tasting peel oil.
—Laura Duerr, chicagotribune.com, 13 Mar. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bitter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to bitter
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Cite this Entry
“Bitter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitter. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
bitter
adjective
bit·ter
ˈbit-ər
: being or inducing the one of the four basic taste sensations that is peculiarly acrid, astringent, or disagreeable and suggestive of an infusion of hops compare salt entry 2 sense 2, sour entry 1, sweet entry 1
bitterness
noun
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