Word of the Day Archive
Saturday June 19, 2004
trenchant \TREN-chunt\ , adjective:
1. Characterized by or full of force and vigor; as, "a trenchant analysis."
2. Caustic; biting; severe; as, "trenchant criticism."
3. Distinct; clear-cut; clearly or sharply defined.
Her insistence that women's rights should be upheld universally, notwithstanding concerns about cultural diversity, led some to criticise her for being too narrowly entrenched within western liberalism, while others celebrated her trenchant defence of egalitarianism.
-- Judith Squires, "Susan Moller Okin", The Guardian, March 26, 2004
His revolutionary music, abrasive personality and trenchant writings about art and life divided the city into warring factions.
-- Jonathan Carr, Mahler: A Biography
The trenchant divisions between right and wrong, honest and dishonest, respectable and the reverse, had left so little scope for the unforseen.
-- Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
Trenchant comes from Old French, from the present participle of trenchier, "to cut." It is related to trench.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for trenchant
