mordant
Other forms: mordants; mordantly
If you like Edgar Allan Poe and "The Addams Family," you have a taste for mordant entertainment — that is, anything particularly grim or dark in nature.
The original meaning of mordant (which comes from the Latin word modere, meaning "to bite or sting,") was that of a physical substance that literally bit into something, such as the one used to set dye into fabrics, or etch lines into a copper plate. Now, mordant generally refers to a dark or biting artistic style, sense of humor, or psychological outlook.
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harshly ironic or sinister
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of a substance, especially a strong acid; capable of destroying or eating away by chemical actiondestructivecausing destruction or much damage
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a substance used to treat leather or other materials before dyeing; aids in dyeing processtypes:chrome aluma violet-colored salt used in hide tanning and as a mordant in dyeingantimony potassium tartrate, tartar emetica poisonous colorless salt used as a mordant and in medicinetype of:
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Vocabulary lists containing mordant
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On the New SAT, all of the Reading Test questions are multiple choice and are based on reading passages that may be taken from literature, science, the social sciences, or a US founding document (or a text inspired by such a document). Many of the reading comprehension questions meant to assess a student’s understanding of those passages will require students to choose words that best describe the writer’s tone or point of view, words like the 200 words you see on this list. Learn them here so when you see them in an SAT answer choice, you’ll know what they mean! Here are all of our word lists to help you prepare for the new SAT (debuting March of 2016): The Language of the Test, Multiple-Meaning Words, and Words to Capture Tone.
On the SAT, all of the Reading Test questions are multiple choice and are based on reading passages that may be taken from literature, science, the social sciences, or a U.S. founding document (or a text inspired by such a document). Many of the reading comprehension questions meant to assess a student’s understanding of those passages will require students to choose words that best describe the writer’s tone or point of view, words like the 25 words you see on this list. Learn them here so when you see them in an SAT answer choice, you’ll know what they mean! Following our Roadmap to the SAT? Head back to see what else you should be learning this week.