Word a Day
incisive
What does incisive mean?
incisive (adjective): having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions.
Definition: Princeton WordNet 3.1.
How do you use incisive in a sentence?
- Incisive comments. (Princeton WordNet 3.1)
- As sharp and incisive as the stroke of a fang. (Princeton WordNet 3.1)
How do you pronounce incisive?
/ɪnˈsaɪsɪv/ (IPA, American English). The app reads every word aloud.
Where does incisive come from?
Late Middle English (in the sense “cutting, penetrating”), borrowed from Medieval Latin incīsīvus, from incīdō (“to cut in, cut through”) + -īvus (“-ive”, adjectival suffix).
Etymology: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What are synonyms of incisive?
From Princeton WordNet 3.1.
Test yourself: do you know “incisive”?
Tap an answer to check it. The same questions the app asks.
What does “incisive” mean?
having little elasticity; hence easily cracked or fractured or snapped
Not quite: that's what brittle means.
having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions
Right! That's what “incisive” means.
greatly different from common experience; bizarre, outrageous, strange
Not quite: that's what outlandish means.
lacking distinct or individual characteristics; dull and uninteresting
Not quite: that's what nondescript means.
Which word is closest in meaning to “incisive”?
claustrophobic
Not quite: claustrophobic means something else.
discriminating
Right!
transcendental
Not quite: transcendental means something else.
discriminatory
Not quite: discriminatory means something else.
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