1
as in bitterness
a harsh or sharp quality
doesn't like the asperity of most experimental music
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in severity
biting sharpness of feeling or expression
she responded with such asperity that we knew she was deeply offended by the question
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in hardship
something that is a cause for suffering or special effort especially in the attainment of a goal
as a physically challenged person, he has encountered more than his share of asperities on the road to success
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Examples Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of asperity
Robin Waterfield’s Aesop’s Fables: A New Translation (Basic Books, $30) renders them in all their feral, fatalistic glory—bursts of Hobbesian asperity with dubious, sometimes conflicting, morals.
—
Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 22 Aug. 2024
Advertisement On a re-read, Orwell’s narrative holds up, in large part due to the asperity of the prose and the prescient description of how fascism can creep into any society that takes freedom for granted.
—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
Her asperity has brought upon her the full flaming rage of the Twittersphere.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 2 Oct. 2022
By the time Keane wrote Devoted Ladies, a note of asperity had crept into her fiction.
—Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books, 22 Nov. 2018
Imagine Don Draper’s grasp of American psychopathology delivered with the pithy asperity of Emily Dickinson.
—Megan O’Grady, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2020
Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 22 Aug. 2024
Advertisement On a re-read, Orwell’s narrative holds up, in large part due to the asperity of the prose and the prescient description of how fascism can creep into any society that takes freedom for granted.
—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
Her asperity has brought upon her the full flaming rage of the Twittersphere.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 2 Oct. 2022
By the time Keane wrote Devoted Ladies, a note of asperity had crept into her fiction.
—Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books, 22 Nov. 2018
Imagine Don Draper’s grasp of American psychopathology delivered with the pithy asperity of Emily Dickinson.
—Megan O’Grady, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for asperity
Noun
-
But Musk’s cuts have not spared the platform from deep financial hardship.Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 4 Nov. 2024
-
But both parents suffered from blindness, and his family faced much economic hardship growing up.Ignacio Ornelas, The Mercury News, 31 Oct. 2024
Noun
-
Greg Alder has had great success growing raspberries on the eastern edge of large trees.Joshua Siskin, Orange County Register, 14 Nov. 2024
-
Ribbons marked the edge of the area that will be logged.April Ehrlich, ProPublica, 12 Nov. 2024
Noun
-
Since the intelligence agencies do not usually bother to debunk such individual bits of false propaganda, the sudden flurry of public notifications indicates the severity of the threat that U.S. spies now see in the underlying Russian plot against the election.The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2024
-
The amount represents around 44 percent of the agency's entire two-year budget, underscoring the severity of the situation, as the commission struggles to manage the state's oil and gas industry effectively.David Faris, Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2024
Noun
-
If these workers are deported, the food industry will probably have great difficulty replacing them.Paul Krugman, The Mercury News, 13 Nov. 2024
-
But there are several counties where the difficulty is even higher.Jasmine Cui, NBC News, 10 Nov. 2024
Noun
-
The goal is to achieve a juicy look, characterized by an imprecise and slightly smudged application, reminiscent of the resulting lip tint after taking a bite of fruit.Beatrice Zocchi, Vogue, 5 Nov. 2024
-
Light bites accompany the tasting, enhancing the experience.Shivani Vora, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
Noun
-
The spike in homophobia and homophobic violence has led Ivorian gay communities and human rights groups to express concerns that the hostility could endanger the country's reputation for comparative tolerance.Tess Foley-Cox, theweek, 7 Nov. 2024
-
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, international alarm has arisen over the hostilities taking place around southern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP), which Russia captured at the start of the war.Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2024
Noun
-
Still others are investigating viruses that attack Bd and eventually might be used to reduce its virulence.Martin J. Kernan, Discover Magazine, 16 Nov. 2024
-
Assuming the contagiousness and virulence of Neolithic diseases increased through time, dense settlements such as Çatalhöyük may have reached a tipping point where the effects of disease outweighed the benefits of living closely together.R. Alexander Bentley, Discover Magazine, 17 Oct. 2024
Noun
-
The third element of the trio is Mary Flynn, played by the terrific Lindsey Mendez, a 2018 Tony winner for Carousel, with a natural warmth that offsets the character’s growing acerbity.David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Dec. 2022
-
The Brodie books demonstrate her great facility with genre, pairing pulse-quickening suspense with Atkinson’s distinctive blend of puckishness and acerbity.Sarah Chihaya, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2022
Thesaurus Entries Near asperity
Cite this Entry
“Asperity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/asperity. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share