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Definition of trenchant
trenchantly
adverbRead the Latest from M-W
trenchant was our Word of the Day on 11/05/2014. Hear the podcast!
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Examples of trenchant in a Sentence
a writer with a trenchant wit
even the most trenchant sword could not sever the bonds of loyalty between them
Recent Examples of trenchant from the Web
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Carpenter has built a career as a trenchant singer-songwriter.
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What Larry Kramer’s trenchant play (and subsequent film)
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Mr. Wolf, a multi-instrumentalist who focuses on the vibraphone, strikes a comfortable balance between stately precision and trenchant swing.
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Since the presidential election, the developer’s criticism of his own industry has taken a more trenchant tone, energizing a new wave of tech activists.
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The CBO’s trenchant analysis gets at the basic problem of health care under America’s uniquely crazy quilt of public money and private insurance.
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Comedian Jordan Peele’s first foray as a film director is a biting, trenchant success.
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Peele’s film is trenchant and riotous, bitter and bleak.
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From the muscular serenity of its opening bars, the Seventh is a triumph: its proportions are shapely, its themes striving and memorable, its moods convincingly trenchant or painfully vulnerable.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'trenchant'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
The word trenchant comes from the Anglo-French verb trencher, meaning "to cut," and may ultimately derive from the Vulgar Latin trinicare, meaning "to cut in three." Hence, a trenchant sword is one with a keen edge; a trenchant remark is one that cuts deep; and a trenchant observation is one that cuts to the heart of the matter. Relatives of trenchant in English include the noun trench ("a long ditch cut into the ground") and the verb retrench ("to cut down or pare away" or "to cut down expenses").
Origin and Etymology of trenchant
Middle English trenchaunt, from Anglo-French, present participle of trencher
TRENCHANT Defined for English Language Learners
trenchant
playDefinition of trenchant for English Language Learners
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: very strong, clear, and effective
Learn More about trenchant
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See words that rhyme with trenchant Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for trenchant Spanish Central: Translation of trenchant Nglish: Translation of trenchant for Spanish speakers
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