piquant

UK/ˈpiːkənt/US/ˈpiːkənt/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,913 of 15,258neutral

Piquant means pleasantly sharp and spicy. A piquant sauce, piquant and fresh, a piquant flavour.

It is a compliment about a small sharpness that wakes a dish up rather than a burn. Applied to a remark or a situation it means intriguing and slightly provocative. The French behind it means pricking, from the verb meaning to sting.

Definitions of piquant

1adjectivepiquantPleasantly sharp and spicy.C1
“The fish came with a piquant sauce of capers, lemon and green chilli.”

piquant is a flavour.

Where it comes from

French piquant is the present participle of piquer, to prick or sting.

Old French
pikier — to prick, sting, nettle
Middle French
piquant — pricking, stimulating, irritating
English, today
piquant

Borrowed from Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), present participle of piquer, possibly from Old French pikier (“to prick, sting, nettle”). a doublet of picong. Related to pike.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Texture & Touch

Practise this word

piquant in the wild

Depending on the capsaicin content in bell peppers and the amount of added chili peppers, it can be sweet (traditional), piquant (the most common), or very hot.
Ajvar
As typical meals there is known the Purtumote, the Nickname, the Locro, the cuy with dads and the piquant one of candy stick between others.
Longuita District
Conditum was considered to be a piquant wine.
Conditum
Although his hand-coloured prints and urushi-e are also known, Kiyotsune is at his best in his beni-e, marked by a piquant line and pattern.
Torii Kiyotsune

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.

← Vocabulary