Word.ws English Dictionary

acerbest

acerbest is the superlative form of acerb.

Meaning of acerb

Adjective

acerb (comparative acerber or more acerb, superlative acerbest or most acerb)

  1. (archaic) Sour, bitter, and harsh to the taste, such as unripe fruit.
    • If you put Spirit of Sulphur to the Peruvian Bark, it then becomes very acerb. If you mix Mercury with Spirit of Nitre or Oil of Vitriol whilst it boils, it then is very acerb.1732, Edward Strother, Prælectiones Pharmaco-mathicæ & medico-practicæ
    Synonyms:
    acerbic
  2. (archaic, figuratively) Sharp and harsh in expressing oneself.
    • As to the somewhat acerb remarks of the member for Jacques Cartier, I may pass them over […]1909, Canada. Parliament. House of Commons, Debates: Official Report, volume 1, page 1970
    Synonyms:
    acerbic

Questions about acerbest

What is acerbest the superlative form of?
Acerbest is the superlative form of acerb.

Words near acerbest in the dictionary

  1. acerbates
  2. acerbating
  3. acerbation
  4. acerbations
  5. acerber
  6. acerbest
  7. acerbic
  8. acerbically
  9. acerbicness
  10. acerbities
  11. acerbitous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: acerbest (page history and authors); acerb (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-acerbest.ogg.

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