acrid

UK/ˈæk.ɹɪd/US/ˈæk.ɹɪd/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,619 of 15,258neutral

Acrid means sharp and bitter enough to sting the nose. Acrid smoke, an acrid smell, acrid fumes.

It belongs to smoke and burning above all, and the sting is a chemical irritation of the nose rather than a smell in the ordinary sense. Acrid remarks are bitter. The Latin acer means sharp, which is also behind acid and eager.

Definitions of acrid

1adjectiveacridSharp and bitter enough to sting the nose.C1
“Acrid smoke from the burning tyres made everyone cough.”

acrid is a quality of smell.

Where it comes from

Latin acer means sharp, probably shaped in English towards acid. Acute, eager and vinegar share the sharpness.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eḱ-
Latin
ācris
English, today
acrid

Built from

ācer · Latin — sharp

From Latin ācris, from ācer (“sharp”); probably assimilated in form to acid. Compare eager.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Texture & Touch

Practise this word

acrid in the wild

The name is a reference to the acrid odour and acrid skin-irritating effect of the compound.
Acridine
The taste of potassium cyanide has been described as acrid and bitter, with a burning sensation similar to lye.
Potassium cyanide
In the suicide note he left, the final words written were that potassium cyanide "burns the tongue and tastes acrid".
Potassium cyanide
In most cultivars there is an acrid taste that requires careful cooking.
Eddoe
The young leaves can also be cooked and eaten, but (unlike taro) they have a somewhat acrid taste.
Eddoe

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the ācer family

eager

acrid — used about once every 81,824 pages · #14,619 · point at the bar for the others

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