adjective

• 1Having a sharply strong taste or smell.

  ‘the pungent smell of frying onions’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Raw ginger has a refreshing smell and a pungent taste that most people like.’
  • ‘However, in our laboratory a strong pungent smell had been noticed in the morning, after overnight sterilization.’
  • ‘After four days, the beer however deteriorates and develops a vinegary and pungent smell and taste.’
  • ‘A dark figure leant over him, and something with a strong, pungent smell was thrust into his face.’
  • ‘The next thing was a pungent smell of burning plastic.’
  • ‘It's still warm and the pungent, cloying, smell of incinerated tree still fills the air, 36 hours on.’
  • ‘The air possessed a pungent, acrid smell because the cigarette had burned through a filter stub in the overflowing ashtray.’
  • ‘He awoke again with a start to the pungent smell of burning silicon wafting in the air.’
  • ‘The pungent smell of burnt wood and a powerful odor of sweat saturated the very walls of the shop.’
  • ‘The pungent smell of petrol at service stations will soon be a thing of the past under government plans to force retailers to cut cancer-causing fumes.’
  • ‘Mixed with the pungent smell of hay, I shall never forget it, ever!’
  • ‘Wandering among the ruins, there was the distinctive, pungent smell of death, as many bodies have yet to be discovered.’
  • ‘Stepping out of the wooden portals, your nostrils are assailed by the pungent smell of leaf-wrapped dosai.’
  • ‘Most of the world's humans are accustomed to the pungent smell of body odor.’
  • ‘Nothing but the stench of fear to show for his presence, a pungent lingering smell that slides down the back of your throat like tar.’
  • ‘If we just could get rid of the quite pungent smell of a sheep stable even after a good scrub it would be perfect.’
  • ‘In all copious amounts of alcohol are consumed and the pungent smell of marijuana wafts through the air.’
  • ‘It's in what was once the spice area, known for its pungent and exotic smells.’
  • ‘A pungent odour can be smelt far from the factory and the hill facing the chimney is bare.’
  • ‘Alison could see the yellowish stained teeth and the pungent smell of cigars and liquor was in his breath from a bar most likely.’

  Synonyms

  strong, powerful, pervasive, penetrating, suffocating, stifling

  sour, acid, biting, bitter, tart, vinegary, tangy

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1(of comment, criticism, or humor) having a sharp and caustic quality.
     ‘he has expressed some fairly pungent criticisms’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Bambooque's criticism is sharp and pungent, but without being limited to the leader.’
     • ‘The Duke of Norfolk, in the next row, offered pungent comments about one or two of them.’
     • ‘She has some pungent comments about the spineless response to terrorism.’
     • ‘His criticism could be pungent, he rarely praised, but instilled respect for the language he loved.’
     • ‘Enjoying stardom while shrewdly aware of its unreality, she was accessible, loyal, generous, with a pungent sense of humour.’
     • ‘Mencken was a controversial satirical journalist and pungent critic of American life.’
     • ‘Fortunately his blog is still there to read and enjoy his sardonic, pungent wit - although it does seem to be growing mold.’
     • ‘He was a pungent, if inevitably covert, critic of Nazism, a discerning analyst of the ills of our age and our best hope of a cure for them.’
     • ‘The frescoes show his racy handling of narrative and his pungent characterization.’
     Synonyms

     caustic, biting, trenchant, cutting, acerbic, sardonic, sarcastic, scathing, acrimonious, pointed, barbed, acid, sharp, keen, tart, stinging, astringent, incisive, devastating, piercing, penetrating, rapier-like, razor-edged, critical, bitter, polemic, virulent, vitriolic, venomous, waspish, corrosive, mordant, stringent

     View synonyms