lexicow

pungent

/ˈpʌndʒənt//ˈpʌndʒənt/·adjective
A knife halves the onion on the board and the cut face glistens. I lean in to look — and a green haze lifts off it and reaches clean to the back of my nose and eyes. The brow knots, a single tear starts, and I rock back with an involuntary sniff: not foul, exactly, just so strong and so pointed it arrives before I can decide whether I like it. From a slice no bigger than a coin, the whole kitchen suddenly has a smell with an edge on it.
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Definition

Something pungent has a smell or taste so strong and sharp it seems to push into the nose: cut onion, crushed garlic, ripe cheese, mustard, ammonia. From the Latin pungere, 'to prick' — the same root as 'puncture' — and that is exactly the sensation, a smell with a point on it. Unlike acrid, which is bitter and burning, a pungent smell can be sharp and still appetising; it is the intensity that defines it, an aroma that can linger and fill a whole room from a tiny source.

Examples

  • Crushed garlic gives off a pungent smell that clings to the fingers for hours.
  • The cheese was so pungent that a single slice scented the whole fridge.
  • A pungent whiff of ammonia rose from the bucket and made her step back.

Collocations

a pungent smell·a pungent aroma·pungent cheese·pungent with garlic·a pungent odour

Synonyms

acrid·sharp·strong·penetrating·piquant

Antonyms

bland·mild·odourless

See also

Word family

pungency (noun)·pungently (adverb)

In TOEFL & IELTS

A precise word for IELTS/TOEFL writing about food, cooking, and smell. Pronounced /ˈpʌndʒənt/, stress on the first syllable; the noun is 'pungency'. Keep it apart from acrid: both are sharp and strong, but acrid is bitter and burning (smoke, acid), while pungent is penetrating and often appetising (garlic, spice, ripe cheese). A pungent flavour can be a compliment; an acrid one rarely is.