trenchant
adjective
Did you know?
There’s much to know about the word trenchant, but we’ll cut to the chase. The word trenchant comes from the Anglo-French verb trencher, meaning “to cut.” Hence, a trenchant sword is one with a keen edge. Nowadays, trenchant mostly describes things that don’t cut deep literally, but that are still felt: a trenchant remark is one that cuts close to the bone, and a trenchant observation is one that cuts to the heart of the matter. In addition to meaning “caustic” and “sharply perceptive,” trenchant also carries a sense meaning “very strong, clear, and effective” that may be used, for instance, to describe a persuasive essay written with intellectual rigor. If you find yourself forgetting these “edgy” definitions, you might dig up a familiar relative of trenchant: the noun trench, which refers to a long cut or ditch in the ground.
Examples of trenchant in a Sentence
Lee Sharrock, Forbes.com, 13 May 2025
Whereas Videodrome could once reductively be described as a cautionary tale about the corrosive influence of television, its anxieties have only grown more trenchant.
—A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 28 Apr. 2025
These basic ideas, far from revelatory, never come close to the trenchant critiques of hedonism in Wilde’s 1891 novel.
—Christian Lewis, Variety, 28 Mar. 2025
Image Wood’s critique — the way technology has left us prone to dysfunctional loneliness — is trenchant, but his approach is fundamentally goofy.
—Ismail Muhammad, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for trenchant
Cite this Entry
“Trenchant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trenchant. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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trenchant
adjective
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