incisive
adjective
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An incisive person doesn’t hem and haw—they get straight to the point. The original meaning of incisive, from around 1600, was "having a cutting edge or piercing point"; the modern meaning of "impressively direct and decisive" has been part of English since the mid-1800s. Incisive is a close relative of incisor, which refers to a front tooth typically adapted for cutting, so it's no surprise that incisive has a specific meaning in dentistry, describing that which is of, relating to, or situated near the incisors. Both incisive and incisor come from the Latin verb caedere, meaning "to cut." English is rich in cuttings from the fruitful stem of caedere: some examples to sink your teeth into are scissors, chisel, incise ("to cut into or engrave"), excise ("to remove by cutting"), incision ("cut" or "gash"), precise ("minutely exact"), and concise ("brief").
Examples of incisive in a Sentence
Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 17 Dec. 2025
Green weaves together the moving personal narratives of real people past and present navigating tuberculosis with an incisive look at the way our society has succeeded and failed in its quest to vanquish the disease.
—Charlotte Observer, 15 Dec. 2025
British photographer Martin Parr, known for his wry and incisive documentation of England’s social class structure, died on December 6 at his home in Bristol, England.
—News Desk, Artforum, 15 Dec. 2025
Kevin Pelton, an ESPN commentator known for his incisive statistical analysis, graded the Celtics’ off-season moves as a C.
—Louisa Thomas, New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Incisive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incisive. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.
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incisive
adjective
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incisive
adjective
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