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The etymology of mordant certainly has some bite to it. That word, which came to modern English through Middle French, ultimately derives from the Latin verb mordēre, which means "to bite." In modern parlance, mordant usually suggests a wit that is used with deadly effectiveness. Mordēre puts the bite into other English terms, too. For instance, that root gave us the tasty morsel ("a tiny bite"). But nibble too many of those and you'll likely be hit by another mordēre derivative: remorse ("guilt for past wrongs"), which comes from Latin remordēre, meaning "to bite again."
Synonyms
Examples of mordant in a Sentence
Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 3 Apr. 2024
In the 1970s, Lewis became a stand-up comic in Greenwich Village, making the late-night talk show circuit, and becoming well-known for his mordant stage presence and frenetically self-deprecating humor.
—Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 28 Feb. 2024
Entwined with that reserve is a fierce charisma and a mordant sense of humor.
—Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2024
This satirical horror brilliantly dissects the soulless '80s capitalist culture, where materialism reigns supreme and vanity is a virtue, while Christian Bale conjures a monumental character study with his mordant and monstrous Bateman.
—James Mercadante, Ilana Gordon, EW.com, 22 Sep. 2023
Good Material Dolly Alderton is something of a modern-day Nora Ephron, bringing a fresh and mordant perspective to the eternal struggle between the sexes.
—Chloe Schama, Vogue, 12 Jan. 2024
Moore’s prose is deceptively simple, full of wordplay, hilariously mordant.
—Vogue, 30 Dec. 2023
These novelists are brisk and mordant stylists who treat sorrow and disaffection not as problems to solve or as states to submerge oneself in, but as conditions to be lived with and sometimes laughed at.
—Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 19 Dec. 2023
Fallen Leaves is the latest work from the Finnish writer and director Aki Kaurismäki, who channels his country’s dry and mordant outlook on life into quietly uproarious material.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 17 Nov. 2023
Kristin Guy, Sunset Magazine, 4 Jan. 2024
Thus begins the most elaborate conceit of the script by Scottish TV writer Neil Forsyth, as a mordant running conversation between the two Becketts — one self-recriminating, the other more archly ironic — frames and introduces the various stages of his past.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 1 Oct. 2023
Particularly well served by the writers are Doi, the resident mordant wit, and Donovan as the doofus — in Kutcher’s old job, basically.
—Robert Lloydtelevision Critic, Los Angeles Times, 18 Jan. 2023
Come for the crying and masturbating and post-split Tinder roundelays; stay for the mordant, messy wit that lights up nearly every page.
—Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 13 Jan. 2023
The actors are nimble with Letts’ mordant, deceptively situational humor, and in embodying their characters’ chilling complacency.
—Naveen Kumar, Variety, 17 Apr. 2022
Loudon, 70-something patriarch, inhabits the canopy; from folkie to singing surgeon to some measure of each, adjoining the mordant to the serious.
—Nathan Rizzo | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 1 Nov. 2021
But Stewart’s take on Diana gives this film a wicked sense of humor too, emphasizing how her mordant sarcasm clashed just as uncomfortably with the royal family as her independent streak did.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 25 Sep. 2021
But another three words, albeit unspoken, also pulse beneath this mordant and inventive satire by James Ijames: Examine your assumptions.
—BostonGlobe.com, 1 May 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mordant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Mordant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mordant. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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mordant
noun
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