Make Your Point > Archived Issues > POIGNANT

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

pronounce POIGNANT: Say it "POIN yunt." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: Our word poignant traces back through French to the Latin pungere, meaning "to poke, to pierce, to prick," or less literally, "to bother." It's related to words like point, puncture, and pungent, as well as these:     1. P____, meaning "a feeling of anger or strong annoyance;" or, "to spark or excite," as in "The title p_____ed my curiosity." 2. P___ant, meaning "both sharp and pleasant at the same time: either sharp and delicious, or exciting and stimulating." Can you recall both? (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)     definition: "Poignant," which has that silent G in it probably because it came through French, comes from a Latin word meaning "to poke, to pierce." Something poignant can be sharp-smelling or sharp-tasting. Like a delicious curry, for example. But more often, something poignant is piercing to the heart, making you feel strong emotions--usually a mix of sadness and happiness. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Adjective: "a poignant story," "a poignant memory." Other forms:  The adverb is "poignantly." For a noun, pick either "poignance" or "poignancy." how to use it: Pick the formal, serious, common word "poignant" to label anything that seems sincere, truthful, insightful, and/or inspiring even as it pierces your heart. The tone is positive: it's a compliment to describe some song, poem, scene, film, or book as poignant.  Still, poignant things are bittersweet. They touch us deeply, where it hurts. examples: "Next to him lay his violin, trampled, an eerily poignant little corpse."    — Elie Wiesel, Night, 1956    "The experience was nourishing his soul, delivering a poignant reminder that humanity was really one enormous family, united by its common vulnerability to a virus."    — Peter S. Goodman, New York Times, 13 January 2022 has this page helped you understand "poignant"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "poignant" without saying "touching" or "penetrating." try it out: Way back when the movie Titanic came out, my sister and I loved it, but we found it hard to watch. It was too real. Yeah, it was fiction, just actors on a screen, but they did too good of a job: they made us feel like we were actually watching the real survivors, and victims, of the Titanic disaster. It was a poignant movie for us. With Titanic in mind as an example, think about some song, poem, book, show, or movie that really gets to you. Talk about this piece's most poignant phrase, sentence, moment, or scene. How does it pierce you straight to your heart? If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for this month: MYP Anagrams! Rearrange the letters in the given word to form a word we've studied before. For example, if I give you THREAD, you give me DEARTH. To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Try this one today: Rearrange the letters in GLIDE to make an adjective.  To peek at the clues, highlight the hidden white text below.    The definition is… very cold, especially in a refreshing way.    The first letter is… G. review this word: 1. Near-opposites of POIGNANT include A. SHALLOW, HOLLOW, PHONY, and ARTIFICIAL. B. GRANTED, GIVEN, ENDOWED, and BEQUEATHED. C. FORGED, MIMICKED, COPYCAT, and DERIVATIVE. 2. The fact-checkers at Snopes.com dig for the truth behind all kinds of images and narratives that people share online, some of which seem especially poignant. For example, they debunked this claim: "_____." A. This photograph of Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe posing together, tweeted out by their respective publicists, is clearly a fake. The two actors are actually the same person B. This photograph shows chairs that were laid out for a wedding in 1939 in Poland. The wedding was abandoned, and so were the chairs due to the German invasion. They were found again after the war with the trees growing through them C. This photograph of a well-known politician, walking away from the camera, proves that she suffers from incontinence. Note the dark stain on the back of her skirt Answers to the review questions: 1. A 2. B Answer to the game question: Gelid. Something gelid is very cold, especially in a refreshing way. a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.