noun

• The quality of evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret.

  ‘the pregnancy has a special poignancy for her family’

  More example sentences

  • ‘What gives this wretched episode extra poignancy is the fact that the bandit commander's life had been saved by the Red Cross a year earlier.’
  • ‘It may be a history lesson but it is sure to portray with poignancy the humour, hurt, heartbreak and pain that they didn't teach us in the classroom.’
  • ‘The album isn't bad because it isn't distressing or painful, which one would expect from poignancy.’
  • ‘His public funeral and the later memorial evening of performances by the company are described with heartbreaking poignancy.’
  • ‘She delivered the long despairing monologue that closes the work with great poignancy.’

  Synonyms

  pathos, sadness, pitifulness, piteousness, sorrow, mournfulness, wretchedness, misery, bitterness, pain, painfulness, distress, tragedy

  View synonyms