English Explanatory Dictionary

piquant

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Causing hurt feelings; scathing, severe.
  2. Stimulating to the senses; engaging; charming.
  3. Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy.
  4. Producing a burning sensation due to the presence of chilies or similar spices; spicy, hot.

Pronunciation

En-us-piquant 01.ogg /ˈpiːkənt/ /ˈpiːˌkɑːnt/ /piːˈkɑːnt/ /ˈpiːkwənt/

Word forms

piquant more piquant most piquant piquante

Etymology

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

Derived words

piquancy piquantly piquantness unpiquant
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on P Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary