1
as in bitterness
a harsh or sharp quality
doesn't like the asperity of most experimental music
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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
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Her writing style combines careful historical detail with moving personal recollection, allowing readers to vicariously experience the grueling training, camaraderie, and hardships of St. Gertrude's Hospital School of Nursing’s nursing students, more commonly referred to as St. Trudy's students.—
Sixteen Ramos,
USA Today,
9 May 2025
-
This is a sweet story all about family legacy, authentic food, and fighting to preserve both in the face of hardship.—
DeVonne Goode,
Parents,
8 May 2025
Noun
-
But Nungesser argues a better option is to strengthen the Mississippi River's flow by filling crevasses along the river's edge that have widened over the years.—
Kati Weis,
CBS News,
28 Apr. 2025
-
Beane took three cornerbacks, two defensive tackles and edge rusher Landon Jackson.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
28 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
The student's friends took her to a nearby apartment to rest after the fall, not realizing the severity of her injuries.—
Madison E. Goldberg,
People.com,
3 May 2025
-
But for the most part, people don’t get the severity.—
Miranda Mullings and Rachel Chang,
Travel + Leisure,
3 May 2025
Noun
-
The broader issue is that the Cubs may have difficulties finding an upgrade.—
Sahadev Sharma,
New York Times,
2 May 2025
-
Listen to Booster and Yang talk about the difficulty of working alongside their cutie costars in the podcast episode above.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
2 May 2025
Noun
-
Viewers could be fooled into believing that a bite of tomato was the best thing Miller's ever tasted in her life given her reaction alone.—
Skyler Caruso,
People.com,
2 May 2025
-
Soon thereafter, starving, Cage yanks the dead rat from the ground and holds it to his teeth, about to take a bite.—
Rachel Handler,
Vulture,
2 May 2025
Noun
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And this all matches the public’s general hostility to higher rates of immigration to the US over the last few years — which according to Gallup data, seems to still be the case.—
Christian Paz,
Vox,
2 May 2025
-
Trump has pressed both sides to quickly come to a war-ending agreement, but while Zelenskyy agreed to an American plan for an initial 30-day halt to hostilities, Russia has not signed on and has continued to strike at targets inside Ukraine.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
27 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
In Canada, modest supply management policies keep farmgate and farmer pay prices higher, while disincentivizing the buildout of fast-paced, crowded and large scale production facilities at the heart of avian flu virulence.—
Errol Schweizer,
Forbes,
24 Mar. 2025
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Everything about the movement surprised political observers: its virulence, its magnitude, its provincial origins, its apparent lack of structure and leadership, and its adamant refusal to be co-opted by existing political parties and unions.—
Arthur Goldhammer,
Foreign Affairs,
12 Dec. 2018
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 11 May. 2025.
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