1
as in bitterness
a harsh or sharp quality
doesn't like the asperity of most experimental music
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2
as in severity
biting sharpness of feeling or expression
she responded with such asperity that we knew she was deeply offended by the question
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3
as in hardship
something that is a cause for suffering or special effort especially in the attainment of a goal
as a physically challenged person, he has encountered more than his share of asperities on the road to success
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Recent Examples of asperity
Robin Waterfield’s Aesop’s Fables: A New Translation (Basic Books, $30) renders them in all their feral, fatalistic glory—bursts of Hobbesian asperity with dubious, sometimes conflicting, morals.
—
Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 22 Aug. 2024
Advertisement On a re-read, Orwell’s narrative holds up, in large part due to the asperity of the prose and the prescient description of how fascism can creep into any society that takes freedom for granted.
—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
Her asperity has brought upon her the full flaming rage of the Twittersphere.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 2 Oct. 2022
By the time Keane wrote Devoted Ladies, a note of asperity had crept into her fiction.
—Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books, 22 Nov. 2018
Imagine Don Draper’s grasp of American psychopathology delivered with the pithy asperity of Emily Dickinson.
—Megan O’Grady, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2020
Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 22 Aug. 2024
Advertisement On a re-read, Orwell’s narrative holds up, in large part due to the asperity of the prose and the prescient description of how fascism can creep into any society that takes freedom for granted.
—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
Her asperity has brought upon her the full flaming rage of the Twittersphere.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 2 Oct. 2022
By the time Keane wrote Devoted Ladies, a note of asperity had crept into her fiction.
—Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books, 22 Nov. 2018
Imagine Don Draper’s grasp of American psychopathology delivered with the pithy asperity of Emily Dickinson.
—Megan O’Grady, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for asperity
Noun
-
The Tower is not always an omen of hardship and struggle.—
Meghan Rose,
Glamour,
1 June 2025
-
In early 2021 due to financial hardship Spirit of Joy made the hard decision to list the property for sale.—
The Rev Lawrence Hand,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
28 May 2025
Noun
-
In a Venezuelan election, running as an incumbent gives you the sort of edge that any unscrupulous and power-hungry leader around the world can only fantasize about.—
Antonio Maria Delgado,
Miami Herald,
3 June 2025
-
The water instead rolls down the fly and through the lower mesh edge, onto the exterior tub floor fabric and onto the ground.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
2 June 2025
Noun
-
Nearly 90% of natural gas processing, fractionation, and storage is concentrated in four regions in the U.S., each subject to various environmental hazards that will incur greater complications and costs as climate change exacerbates natural disasters’ frequency and severity.—
Erik Kobayashi-Solomon,
Forbes.com,
8 June 2025
-
Try supplements: Certain supplements, such as Riboflavin and CoQ10, can help reduce the frequency and severity of attacks.—
Verywell Health,
Verywell Health,
6 June 2025
Noun
-
These disruptions and the resulting symptoms like headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, difficulty concentrating, memory lapses, balance issues, sensitivity to light and noise and personality changes can last minutes to days to even weeks and months.—
Bruce Y. Lee,
Forbes.com,
31 May 2025
-
The difficulty is that anger doesn't get to be carried out by taking out a handgun and shooting at three teenagers.—
Christine Pelisek,
People.com,
30 May 2025
Noun
-
As stories of love, loss and migration unfold over small bites and careful sips, Bose paints a portrait of identity steeped in sensory memory.—
Jamie Lang,
Variety,
7 June 2025
-
What Davies has thus far brought to his second bite of the Who apple has proven … mixed.—
Glen Weldon,
NPR,
7 June 2025
Noun
-
Over the nearly 20 months since the hostilities began, Colin Clarke said there has been a radicalization effect in the U.S., particularly of the political left.—
Odette Yousef,
NPR,
28 May 2025
-
Opposition to the war became hostility toward our own military.—
Arthur I. Cyr,
Chicago Tribune,
27 May 2025
Noun
-
The results revealed that pla depletion decreases the virulence and increases the length of plague infections in mice.—
Sam Walters,
Discover Magazine,
31 May 2025
-
The diminished virulence that the pathogen evolved in response to more of its hosts dying potentially caused these earlier plague pandemics to fizzle out.—
Laura Baisas,
Popular Science,
29 May 2025
Noun
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The third element of the trio is Mary Flynn, played by the terrific Lindsey Mendez, a 2018 Tony winner for Carousel, with a natural warmth that offsets the character’s growing acerbity.—
David Rooney,
The Hollywood Reporter,
12 Dec. 2022
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The Brodie books demonstrate her great facility with genre, pairing pulse-quickening suspense with Atkinson’s distinctive blend of puckishness and acerbity.—
Sarah Chihaya,
The New Yorker,
16 Oct. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Asperity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/asperity. Accessed 12 Jun. 2025.
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