piquant

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adjective pi·quant \ ˈpē-kənt , -ˌkänt ; ˈpi-kwənt \

Definition of piquant

1 :engagingly provocative; also :having a lively arch charm

2 :agreeably stimulating to the taste; especially :spicy

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piquantly

adverb

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piquantness

noun

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See piquant defined for kids

piquant was our Word of the Day on 04/16/2012. Hear the podcast!

Examples of piquant in a Sentence

piquant vegetables seasoned with pepper
He served the fish with a piquant sauce.
a piquant bit of gossip

Recent Examples of piquant from the Web

Created by the piquant geniuses at the Tabasco Flavor Lab, Scorpion Sauce is a powerful blend of scorpion peppers combined with hints of guava, pineapple, and the original Tabasco sauce.

— perri ormont blumberg, Southern Living, "Tabasco Debuts Its Hottest Sauce Yet Today," 20 July 2017
Its piquant jolt balances out the massive dose of savory from those thick slabs of pastrami.

— andy staples, SI.com, "How Nick Fitzgerald became Dak Prescott's successor and Mississippi State's next star," 10 July 2017
My favorite, El Diablo, is piquant with ingredients like spicy mayonnaise and sriracha salt.

— lauren delgado, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Give poke a try at these Central Florida restaurants," 15 June 2017
Strong Water’s version comes with a sugary sweet jalapeno-pineapple jam and a more smoky and piquant chipotle mustard to dunk potato in.

— lauren delgado, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Strong Water Tavern offers taste of the tropics at Universal Orlando," 15 June 2017
Each component does its job: the richness of cheese and crema against the crunch of the chips, the piquant salsa giving you a break from that fat.

— joe gray, chicagotribune.com, "Fried chicken nachos at Honey Butter Fried Chicken," 9 June 2017
The good-looking writer will always be welcome on television and popular at parties; her story will seem more piquant, her emotional depths deeper.

— kathleen a. flynn, New York Times, "How Is a Debut Novel Like Lizzy Bennet?," 2 June 2017
The marinated and chargrilled chicken cubes were served with rice, two piquant salads (one with red cabbage and the other with cucumbers and carrots) and strips of pita bread.

— suzanne loudermilk, baltimoresun.com, "Tiny space, bold flavors at Otto Turkish Cuisine in Federal Hill," 19 May 2017
And she was shadowed by precise, piquant backing vocalists, who sometimes echoed their leader, and sometimes engaged her in a vocal boxing match.

— elias leight, Billboard, "Olga Tanon Talks Chart Records, New Album 'Olga Tanon y Punto'," 13 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'piquant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Piquant flavors "sting" the tongue and piquant words "prick" the intellect, arousing interest. These varying senses reflect the etymology of the word piquant, which first appeared in English in the 17th century and which derives from the Middle French verb piquer, meaning "to sting" or "to prick." Though first used to describe foods with spicy flavors, the word is now often used to describe things that are spicy in other ways, such as engaging conversation. Have we piqued your curiosity about another piquer offspring? If you’ve already guessed that the verb pique, meaning "to offend" or "to arouse by provocation," comes from piquer, too, you’ve got a sharp mind.

Origin and Etymology of piquant

Middle French, from present participle of piquer

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1616

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piquant Synonyms

Synonyms

pert, poignant, pungent, salty, savory (also savoury), zesty, zingy

Antonyms

insipid, zestless

Near Antonyms

flat, flavorless, savorless, tasteless; arid, banal, barren, boring, colorless, drab, dreary, dry, dull, flat, humdrum, leaden, monotonous, numbing, pedestrian, ponderous, predictable, stale, stodgy, tedious, tiring, uninteresting, wearisome, wearying; bland, dilute, thin, watery, weak

Synonym Discussion of piquant

pungent, piquant, poignant, racy mean sharp and stimulating to the mind or the senses. pungent implies a sharp, stinging, or biting quality especially of odors.