asperity

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023

Arch, cracking with energetic, even contemptuous asperity, it is a world apart from “Everybody.”

From Washington Post • Jun. 17, 2021

Perhaps it doesn’t have the lightness and waspish asperity that we prize in a Smith performance, but this is fine work.

From The Guardian • Sep. 5, 2019

In 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed “to argue without asperity, and to endeavor to convince the judgment without hurting the feelings of each other.”

From The New Yorker • Sep. 12, 2016

“Now where,” he answered with asperity, “where except in the great tea shop on the main street of the town?”

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck