Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ASPERITY
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(Source)
The word "asperity" traces back through French to the Latin asper, meaning "rough or harsh."
Part of speech:
When you need to sound formal and academic, instead of talking about the "roughness" or "meanness" of someone's voice or manners, you can talk about their "asperity."
"A woman came up to [the playwright] Butterworth after a performance, rapped him on the shoulder, and said, 'What happens to the family?' When he told her he didn't know, she replied, with asperity, 'Yeah, I thought so.'"
Explain the meaning of "asperity" without saying "a bitter attitude" or "a harsh attitude."
Fill in the blanks: "(Someone's) (something) provoked asperity in (some other people)."
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.
1.
The literal and figurative opposites of ASPERITY, respectively, are
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