Dictionary

poignant

Pronunciation

Adjective

poignant

(obsolete) Of a weapon, etc.: sharp-pointed#Adjective|pointed; keen#Adjective|keen.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VII:
  His siluer shield, now idle maisterlesse; / His poynant speare, that many made to bleed [...].
Neat; eloquent; applicable; relevant.
A poignant reply will garner more credence than hours of blown smoke.
Evoking strong mental sensation, to the point of distress#Noun|distress; emotionally moving#Adjective|moving.
Synonyms: distressing, moving
Flipping through his high school yearbook evoked many a poignant memory of yesteryear.
- 1905, Edith Wharton, chapter XIV, in The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, OCLC 909409573 ↗, book II, page 528 ↗:
  The shabby chest of drawers was spread with a lace cover, and set out with a few gold-topped boxes and bottles, a rose-coloured pin-cushion, a glass tray strewn with tortoise-shell hair[-]pins—he shrank from the poignant intimacy of these trifles, and from the blank surface of the toilet-mirror above them.
(figuratively) Of a smell#Noun|smell or taste#Noun|taste: piquant, pungent.
(figuratively) Of a look#Noun|look, or of word#Noun|words: incisive; penetrating#Adjective|penetrating; piercing#Adjective|piercing.
His comments were poignant and witty.
(chiefly, Britain, dated) Inducing sharp physical#Adjective|physical pain#Noun|pain.