incisive
adjective
Did you know?
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
Jessica Lipsky, Los Angeles Times, 6 Mar. 2026
This morning, hosts Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell published an incisive conversation with Matt Duss, a leading foreign policy expert.
—Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 6 Mar. 2026
But the team will require more running power, incisive passing and proper width to bounce back in future matches.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2026
Pollard, whose directorial credits include such incisive documentaries as Citizen Ashe and MLK/FBI, had more than a little help in this regard.
—Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 18 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for incisive
Cite this Entry
“Incisive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incisive. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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incisive
adjective
Medical Definition
incisive
adjective
