cynical
adjective
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Out of the Kennel: The History of Cynical
Cynical has a certain amount of dog in its ancestry, although not in the way that you might think. In ancient Greece, the followers of the philosopher Antisthenes were referred to as kynikos (“doglike”); when cynical was first used in English, it often was in reference to this group of philosophers.
A number of other English words have a canine history as well: harass can be traced to a word in Middle French (harer) meaning “to set a dog on;” sarcasm comes from a Greek word (sarkazein) which means “to tear flesh like dogs;” and even the word for a completely different animal, the canary, comes from a word for dog (the explanation for this seeming incongruity is that the bird comes from the Canary Islands, the name of which comes from the Latin for “dog islands,” Canariae insulae).
Examples of cynical in a Sentence
Robert Reich, Prospect, February 2003
When "Roots" premiered on the ABC network in 1977, my generation of black academics and activists was cynical and outraged. We felt the horrors of slavery were rendered flat and lifeless by the miniseries …
—Houston A. Baker, Jr., Vibe, February 2002
It was fear of the Other, the poor, the dying—or to evoke a word with biblical authority—the pestilential. And so I could no longer be cynical about her motives.
—Bharati Mukherjee, Time, 14 June 1999
… was quiet spoken, but he had a cynical arch to his brows, as though he were repressing an urge to sneer.
—Joseph Wambaugh, The Blooding, 1989
Cynical people say there is no such thing as true love.
People are so cynical nowadays.
She's become more cynical in her old age.
Some people regard the governor's visit to the hospital as a cynical attempt to win votes.
Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 8 July 2025
There is a certain business logic to that; from a cynical perspective, if a £10million investment fails to live up to expectations, the financial downside for the buying club is relatively small — and in many cases, he will be sold to somewhere lower down the sport’s food chain.
—Oliver Kay, New York Times, 8 July 2025
The cynical view would be that Trump is looking for a reason to have federal troops join ICE in rounding up undocumented immigrants that Mamdani tries to protect, and to arrest local officials who get in their way.
—Anna Commander, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 July 2025
But the vast majority are cynical and greedy and scared of losing their jobs.
—Chicago Tribune, 3 July 2025
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Video
The History of 'Cynic'
How an ancient philosophical movement devoted to the pursuit of virtue came to describe eye-rolling criticism.
Cite this Entry
“Cynical.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cynical. Accessed 12 Jul. 2025.
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cynical
adjective
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