as in sharply
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Recent Examples of piercingly
His lashes are long, the eyes deep-set, large and intense, staring piercingly into you.
—
Touré, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2025
How could the woman who wrote so piercingly about women’s subjugation subjugate herself to not just one but two men?
—Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2025
Touré, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2025
How could the woman who wrote so piercingly about women’s subjugation subjugate herself to not just one but two men?
—Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for piercingly
Adverb
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Senate Republicans are sharply divided over how to pursue the SAVE America Act voter ID and citizenship bill.—
Burgess Everett,
semafor.com,
26 Feb. 2026
-
How other states handle requests While the language of Florida’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act is similar to that found in many states, its approach to protecting insurers’ rights to shield claim documents differs sharply.—
Ron Hurtibise,
Sun Sentinel,
26 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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As the couple’s busy day of engagements on Thursday neared its end, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex poignantly stopped by the King Hussein Cancer Center, a thoughtful choice as Harry’s father, King Charles, is still receiving treatment for cancer.—
Rachel Burchfield,
InStyle,
26 Feb. 2026
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What’s wrong with being uncomfortable and plowing through demanding texts that challenge us to think about bygone times, far-off places and painful emotions, poignantly expressed?—
Patricia Steckler,
Baltimore Sun,
21 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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Yet prices for many essential goods remains high, and polls show a majority of Americans are acutely concerned about the cost of living.—
Zac Anderson,
USA Today,
21 Feb. 2026
-
Racial erasure is felt most acutely by the people whose histories are rendered invisible—here, African Americans—despite the fact that their contributions helped shape the nation and still remain too often absent from formal education.—
Michelle Duncan,
Architectural Digest,
20 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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Celeste’s version of the tour is harshly minimalistic, all black-and-white strobe lights and profane on-screen text.—
Spencer Kornhaber,
The Atlantic,
24 Feb. 2026
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Even though Florida isn’t known for being harshly cold, some days can still feel surprisingly chilly, and these always come in handy.—
Jacqueline Dole,
Travel + Leisure,
23 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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But he has also been keenly focused on internal use cases and says there’s not one part of the business where artificial intelligence isn’t being considered as a tool that can improve workflows.—
John Kell,
Fortune,
18 Feb. 2026
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For Abdrabbou, who in 2024 established SAMARKAND, a cultural initiative dedicated to preserving and teaching tatreez, practicing the art feels most keenly like a way to honor her heritage.—
Zoe Whitfield,
CNN Money,
14 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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The mythic dimension may be missing here, but Holmes darkly captivates within the narrower compass of this energizing revival.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Feb. 2026
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The suspect's car has darkly tinted windows, damage to the front end and broken headlights.—
JT Moodee Lockman,
CBS News,
24 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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The pipeline of new antibiotics remains distressingly thin, and most drugs currently in development are structurally similar to existing antibiotics, potentially limiting their effectiveness.—
André O. Hudson,
The Conversation,
21 Jan. 2026
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That can be forgiven thanks to the film’s evocative imagery and the emotional resonance of its central themes, distressingly familiar to anyone who has ever lost themselves in a relationship.—
Louis Peitzman,
Vulture,
10 Dec. 2025
Adverb
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What at first appears to be a run-of-the-mill trauma drama about a family dealing with the eldest child’s anorexia nervosa gradually evolves into something odder and more original, even blackly comic, in Ungrateful Beings.—
Leslie Felperin,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Piercingly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/piercingly. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026.
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