Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sardonic |
SardonicAdjective1. Disdainfully or ironically humorous; scornful and mocking; "his rebellion is the bitter, sardonic laughter of all great satirists"- Frank Schoenberner; "a wry pleasure to be...reminded of all that one is missing"- Irwin Edman. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sardonic" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1596. (references) |
Synonym: SardonicSynonym: wry (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Detraction | Adjective: detracting;Verb: defamatory, detractory, derogatory, deprecatory; catty; disparaging, libelous; scurrile, scurrilous; abusive; foul-spoken, foul-tongued, foul-mouthed; slanderous; calumnious, calumniatory; sarcastic, sardonic; sarcastic, satirical, cynical. |
Disapprobation | Satirical, sarcastic, sardonic, cynical, dry, sharp, cutting, biting, severe, withering, trenchant, hard upon; censorious, critical, captious, carping, hypercritical; fastidious; sparing of praise, grudging praise. |
Animadversion, reflection, stricture, objection, exception, criticism; sardonic grin, sardonic laugh; sarcasm, insinuation, innuendo; bad compliment, poor compliment, left-handed compliment. | |
Rejoicing | Smile, simper, smirk, grin; broad grin, sardonic grin. |
Ridicule | Noun: ridicule, derision; sardonic smile, sardonic grin; irrision; scoffing; (disrespect); mockery, quiz, banter, irony, persiflage, raillery, chaff, badinage; quizzing; Verb: asteism. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Sardonic |
| English words defined with "sardonic": pithy ♦ Sardonian, Sardonic grin, sententious, smart aleck ♦ weisenheimer, wise guy, wiseacre, wisenheimer, wry. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "sardonic": Dragon ♦ Sardonic Smile, Grin, or Laughter. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Sardonic" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Romanian (sardonic, sardonically). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Lyrics | This is pathetic and sardonic ("Objection (Tango)"; performing artist: Shakira) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Sardonic" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.58% of the time. "Sardonic" is used about 239 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.58% | 238 | 19,410 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.42% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 239 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "sardonic": sardonic grin ♦ sardonic laugh. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "sardonic": quasi-sardonic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
sardonic | 20 |
define sardonic | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "sardonic"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | sardonik, i hidhur (acid, acidulated, acrid, acrimonious, bitter, distressing, salt), gojëndyrë (derisive, foul-mouthed, insulting, mocking, sarcastic, scurrilous). (various references) | |
Arabic | تهكمي (ironic, ironical, quizzical, sarcastic), ساخر (biting, bitter, cutting, cynic, cynical, derisive, derisory, epigram, giber, ironic, ironical, irradiant, lampooner, lampoonist, laughable, persiflage, quizzical, sarcastic, saturnine, sneerer, snide, tongue in cheek, wry). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | язвителен (acerb, acerbic, acid, acidulated, acrid, acrimonious, adust, biting, cutting, incisive, mordant, poignant, pungent, splenetic, stinging, trenchant, vinegary, vitriolic, waspish), сардоничен. (various references) | |
Czech | sardonický, zatrpklý (acidulated, acrimonious, bitter, embittered, jaundiced, resentful, sour). (various references) | |
Farsi | کنایه امیز (Snide, Wry), وابسته به زهرخنده , طعنه امیز (Bitter, Nippy, Sarcastic). (various references) | |
French | sardonique. (various references) | |
German | sardonisch (sardonically). (various references) | |
Greek | σαρδόνιοσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | ל'ל' י (derisive, derisory, mordant, quizzical, sarcastic), צי י (cynical). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kaján (jaundiced, malevolent, malicious), keserűen gúnyos, cinikus (cynic, cynical). (various references) | |
Italian | sardonico (sard, sardonyx). (various references) | |
Manx | sharroo (acid, acidific, acrid, acrimonious, bitter, cutting, embittered, sour, tart, vitriolic). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ardonicsay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sardônico, sarcástico (acrid, backhanded, ironical, pungent, sarcastic, scathing, sneering, squint eyed), irônico (biting, ironic, ironing, sarcastic), desdenhoso (contemptuous, contumelious, disease, scornful, Sniffy, stuck up, supercilious), cínico (cynic, cynical). (various references) | |
Romanian | sardonic (sardonically), sarcastic (acrid, biting, caustic, caustically, cynical, lashing, mordacious, sarcastic, sarcastically, satiric, severe, sharp, sneering, tart, taunting), batjocoritor (abuser, cynical, derisive, flouting, jeering, jeeringly, merry, mocker, mocking, sarcastic, scoffer, scoffing, sneering). (various references) | |
Russian | сардонический. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zloban (despiteful, invidious, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, mean, meanspirited, ornery, rancorous, vicious, viperous), konvulzivan (convulsive). (various references) | |
Spanish | sardónico. (various references) | |
Swedish | sardonisk, hånfull (contemptuous, derisive, derisory, jeering, mocking, scornful, sneering). (various references) | |
Thai | เยาะเย้ย (gibe, gibe at, guy, jape, jibe, mock, ridicule, taunt with). (various references) | |
Turkish | hakaret dolu (opprobrious), alaylı (biting, ironic, ironical, jeering, ranker, sarcastic, sarky, tongue in cheek), acı (ache, acidulous, acrid, affliction, anguish, biting, bitter, brackish, cutting, distress, gnawing, grief, grievous, harsh, heartbreak, hot, hurt, incisive, lamentable, misery, nippy, pain, painful, pang, peppery, poignant, pungent, sad, scathing, severe, shrill, sorrow, sorrowful, splitting, sting, suffering, tragic, trenchant, vitriolic, worry). (various references) | |
Ukranian | сардонічний (sardonian, sardonical), злобний (nasty, nocuous, rancorous, sardonian, sardonical, spiteful, spleenful, wicked). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | nhạo báng (cheek, derisive, mockingly, sneering), mỉa mai (ironic, ironical, sarcastic, severse), chua chát (acidly, tart), châm biếm (ironic, ironical, satiric, satirical). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | sardonios. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sardonic": sardonically, sardonicism, sardonicisms. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sardonic" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ardonic, asrdonic, Cardoni, narodni, Narodnie, saardonic, sadonic, Saidani, Samdoria, saradonic, sardanic, sardonica, sardonis, sardunic, saronic, Sarwono, Scardeoni. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "sardonic" (pronounced sÄrdÄ"nik) |
| 5 | -d Ä" n i k | hedonic. |
| 4 | -Ä" n i k | allophonic, avionic, bubonic, catatonic, chronic, conic, demonic, diatonic, electronic, embryonic, ganglionic, gnomonic, harmonic, hegemonic, histrionic, hydroponic, hypersonic, hypertonic, ionic, ironic, isoelectronic, isotonic, laconic, leptonic, masonic, microelectronic, mnemonic, monophonic, nucleonic, ovonic, pharaonic, philharmonic, phonic, planktonic, platonic, plutonic, pneumonic, polyphonic, sonic, supersonic, symphonic, synchronic, tectonic, telephonic, tonic, ultrasonic. |
| 3 | -n i k | arsenic, beatnik, botanic, calisthenic, carcinogenic, clinic, cynic, Dominick, ethnic, eugenic, galvanic, germanic, hallucinogenic, inorganic, kibbutznik, manic, mechanic, messianic, monoclinic, multiethnic, neotenic, oceanic, organic, orogenic, panic, pathogenic, photogenic, polytechnic, psychogenic, pyrotechnic, refusenik, satanic, scenic, schizophrenic, splenic, Sputnik, technic, telegenic, Titanic, transgenic, transoceanic, tunic, tympanic, volcanic. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-i-n-o-r-s" | |
-1 letter: candors, inroads, ordains, sadiron, sarcoid. | |
-2 letters: acorns, adonis, adorns, anodic, aroids, arsino, cairds, cairns, candor, canids, casino, danios, darics, dinars, drains, inroad, nadirs, narcos, nicads, nordic, norias, orcins, ordain, racons, radios, radons, rancid, ranids, scoria. | |
-3 letters: acids, acorn, acrid, adios, adorn, airns, aroid, arson, asdic, cadis, caids, cains, caird, cairn, canid, canso, cards, carns, cions, codas, coins, coirs, cords, coria, corns, danio, daric, darns, dinar, disco, donas, dorsa, drain, icons, irons, nadir, narco, narcs, nards, naric, naris, nicad, noirs, noria, noris, orcas, orcin, ornis, racon, radio, radon, raids, rains, rands, ranid, ranis, rinds, roads, roans, rosin, sarin, sarod, scion, scorn, scrod, sodic, sonar, sonic. | |
-4 letters: acid, ados, aids, ains, airn, airs, ands, anis, arco, arcs, arid, asci, cadi, cads, caid, cain, cans, card, carn, cars, ciao, cion, coda, cods, coin, coir, coni, cons, cord, corn, cors, cris, dais, darn, dins, disc, docs, dona, dons, dors, icon, inro, ions, iron, naoi, naos, narc, nard, nodi, nods, noir, nori, oars, ocas, odic, orad, orca, orcs, osar, rads, raid, rain, rand, rani, rias, rids, rind, rins, road, roan, rocs, rods, sadi, said, sain, sand, sard, sari, scad, scan, scar, soar, soda, sora, sord, sori, sorn. | |
-5 letters: ado, ads, aid, ain, air, ais, and, ani, arc, ars, cad, can, car, cis, cod, con, cor, cos, din, dis, doc, don, dor, dos, ids, ins, ion, nod, nor, nos, oar, oca, ods, ons, ora, orc, ors, rad, ran, ras, ria, rid, rin, roc, rod, sac, sad, sic, sin, sir, sod, son, sri. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-d-i-n-o-r-s" | |
+1 letter: braconids, cancroids, cordwains, ironclads. | |
+2 letters: accordions, arachnoids, carcinoids, chancroids, corianders, deaconries, dichondras, discordant, dormancies, fricandoes, indicators, mordancies, ordinances, redactions, scorpaenid, syndicator. | |
+3 letters: achondrites, caparisoned, carotenoids, carotinoids, confirmands, considerate, constrained, contradicts, coordinates, cordialness, cordwainers, decorations, desecration, detractions, diachronies, dicoumarins, discordance, discordancy, distraction, icosahedron, sardonicism, scorpaenids, secondaries, secondarily, syndicators, vindicators. | |
+4 letters: accordionist, aerodynamics, archdiocesan, branchiopods, broadcasting, cardiotonics, commanderies, conquistador, considerable, considerably, consolidator, coordinators, counterraids, cowardliness, crocodilians, crossbanding, cyanohydrins, decarbonizes, declarations, demarcations, deprecations, desecrations, dictionaries, diffractions, disaccording, discordances, discordantly, discouraging, distractions, doctrinaires, dominatrices, endocarditis, eradications, forbiddances, hydromancies, icosahedrons, idiosyncrasy, predications, proboscidean, proboscidian, radiocarbons, recordations, reeducations, romanticised, ropedancings, sardonically, sardonicisms, subarachnoid, transduction, trichomonads, woodcarvings. | |
+5 letters: accordionists, aeromedicines, anaphrodisiac, commandership, comradeliness, confederacies, conquistadors, conservatized, considerables, considerately, consideration, consolidators, constrainedly, containerised, contrabandist, contradictors, coordinations, cordialnesses, cordwaineries, coresidential, cotransducing, crossbandings, daunorubicins, decarbonizers, decelerations, dechlorinates, depreciations, deracinations, discoloration, discordancies, discretionary, discriminator, divarications, doctrinairism, documentaries, documentarist, endoparasitic, ferrocyanides, glucuronidase, hydrodynamics, hypochondrias, idiosyncratic, inconsiderate, indoctrinates, nondecreasing, predominances, privatdocents, proboscideans, proboscidians, quadraphonics, quadriphonics, radionuclides, reconsolidate, redecorations, rededications, rhabdomancies, secondariness, transductions, unconstrained, undercoatings, undiscouraged. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)53 61 72 64 6F 6E 69 63 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)... .- .-. -.. --- -. .. -.-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010011 01100001 01110010 01100100 01101111 01101110 01101001 01100011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)S a r d o n i c |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0053 0061 0072 0064 006F 006E 0069 0063 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5367847081807569 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Orthography 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
