PUNGENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pungent mean? 

• PUNGENT (adjective)
  The adjective PUNGENT has 2 senses:

1. strong and sharp

2. capable of wounding

  Familiarity information: PUNGENT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PUNGENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Strong and sharp

Synonyms:

acrid; pungent

Context example:

the acrid smell of burning rubber

Similar:

tasty (pleasing to the sense of taste)

Derivation:

pungency (a strong odor or taste property)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Capable of wounding

Synonyms:

barbed; biting; mordacious; nipping; pungent

Context example:

pungent satire

Similar:

sarcastic (expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds)

Derivation:

pungency (wit having a sharp and caustic quality)

 Context examples 

The dark spot material may be hydrogen sulfide, with the pungent smell of rotten eggs.

(Hubble Sees Neptune's Mysterious Shrinking Storm, NASA)

A colorless, volatile liquid with a pungent, onion-like odor.

(Acrylonitrile, NCI Thesaurus)

A colorless, highly flammable gas of brominated hydrocarbon, with a characteristic pungent odor.

(Bromoethene, NCI Thesaurus)

Round the house he hurried, led by a pungent smell of burned sugar, and Mr. Scott strolled after him, with a queer look on his face.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A dark amber to dark brown colored, halogenated liquid with a pungent odor.

(Dibromochloropropane, NCI Thesaurus)

A colorless inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH3, usually in gaseous form with a characteristic pungent odor.

(Ammonia, NCI Thesaurus)

The door closed once more, and the pungent reek of a strong cigar was borne to our nostrils.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A colorless, flammable, carcinogenic, chlorinated hydrocarbon with a pungent, ethereal odor.

(Chloroprene, NCI Thesaurus)

Already Alleyne could hear the crackling and roaring of the flames, while the air was heavy with heat and full of the pungent whiff of burning wood.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The fruit is a multiple fruit that has a pungent odor when ripening, and is hence also known as cheese fruit or even vomit fruit.

(Morinda citrifolia, NCI Thesaurus)