bitter

Syllables: bit·terUK/ˈbɪt.ə//ˈbɪ.tɚ/

bitter adjective: having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance).

Adjective

bitter (comparative more bitter or bitterer, superlative most bitter or bitterest)

Having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance).
- The coffee tasted bitter.
- Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth[…].1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
Harsh, piercing, acerbic or stinging.
- It was at the end of February, […] when the world was cold, and a bitter wind howled down the moors […].1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust, p.31 (Perennial paperback edition)
Hateful or hostile.
- They're bitter enemies.
- Tottenham have not won in the Premier League at Emirates Stadium for 12 years, with Arsenal losing just one of their last 29 home league games against their bitter rivals.2022 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham: Gunners show identity & direction in outstanding derby win”, in BBC Sport
Cynical and resentful.
- I've been bitter ever since that defeat.
Synonyms:

jaded

Adverb

bitter (comparative more bitter, superlative most bitter)

To an intense or severe degree; bitterly.
- A dynamic personality in the outfit, he met his death in the bitter-fought engagements in Venafro.2012, Mir Bahmanyar, Darby's Rangers 1942–45, page 26
- After that bitter-spoken warning, talk ceased outside […].2022, Ernest Haycox, The Complete Novels: Son of the West, Saddle and Ride, Action by Night, The Silver Desert, Bugles in the Afternoon

Noun (1)

bitter (countable and uncountable, plural bitters)

(usually in the plural bitters) A liquid or powder, made from bitter herbs, used in mixed drinks or as a tonic.
- Thus I begin: "All is not gold that glitters,
  "Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters.1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
A type of beer heavily flavored with hops.
A turn of a cable about the bitts.

Verb

bitter (third-person singular simple present bitters, present participle bittering, simple past and past participle bittered)

(archaic) To make bitter.
- bittered with the hop1766, John Wilkinson, Tutamen Nauticum

Noun (2)

bitter (plural bitters)

(in-compounds, informal) A hardware system whose architecture is based around units of the specified number of bits (binary digits).
- However, 16-bitters are far more expensive than the 8-bit variety. And, unfortunately, have only a handful of business applications software packages that really take advantage of them.1983, Computerworld, volume 17, number 49, page 21
- The company believes that the 32-bit market will almost equal that of 16-bitters by the end of the decade. Chip maker Zilog Inc., not a major player in the 16-bit arena, is even more bullish about 32-bitters as it readies its own version for market.1984, Electronic Business, volume 10, page 154

Proper noun capitalized: Bitter

Bitter

A surname from Dutch or German.

bitter meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

bitter in Hindi

having an acrid taste: कड़वा kaṛvā, कड़ा kaṛā, कटु kaṭu, तल्ख talkh
harsh, piercing or stinging: तीव्र tīvra, उग्र ugra
hateful or hostile: ईर्ष्यालु īrṣyālu

bitter in Tamil

கசப்பு, கசப்பாக, கசப்பான, கைப்பு, கைத்த, கைச்சல்

bitter in Marathi

having an acrid taste: कडू kaḍū
harsh, piercing or stinging: तीव्र tīvra, उग्र ugra
hateful or hostile: कट्टर kaṭṭar

bitter in Urdu

having an acrid taste: کڑوا kaṛvā

More languagesFewer languages

bitter in Bengali: তিতা tita
bitter in Telugu: చేదు cēdu
bitter in Malayalam: കയ്പ്പ് kayppŭ
bitter in Kannada: ಕಟು kaṭu, ಕಹಿ kahi
bitter in Punjabi: ਕੌੜਾ kauṛā, ਤੁਰਸ਼ turaś, ਜ਼ਹਿਰ zahir
bitter in Gujarati: કડવું kaṛvũ
bitter in Odia: କଟୁ kaṭu, ତିକ୍ତ tikta
bitter in Sanskrit: तिक्त tikta
bitter in Assamese: তিতা tita
bitter in Nepali: तितो tito
bitter in Tagalog: mapait
bitter in Arabic: مُرّ murr, أَلِيم ʔalīm, مَقِيت maqīt, مَمْقُوت mamqūt
bitter in Malay: pahit
bitter in Indonesian: pahit
bitter in Persian: تلخ talx
bitter in Thai: ขม kǒm
bitter in Vietnamese: đắng
bitter in Myanmar: ခါး hka:
Dzongkha: ཁག་དྲགས

Examples of bitter in a sentence

Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.2018 May 16, Adam Rogers, “The Fundamental Nihilism of Yanny vs. Laurel”, in Wired:
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Colossians 3:19:
The dream of it ached, bitter and sharp, for that was all it was.2022, Bec McMaster, Flames and Fated Mates: Six Seductive Fantasy Romance Novels:

All 40 example sentences with bitter

Synonyms of bitter

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of bitter

Forms of bitter

Adjective
comparative	more bitter
comparative	bitterer
superlative	most bitter
superlative	bitterest
Adverb
comparative	more bitter
superlative	most bitter
Noun
plural	bitters
Verb
third-person singular present	bitters
present participle	bittering
past participle	bittered
past	bittered

Plural of bitter: bitters

Origin of bitter

From Middle English bitter, bittre, from Old English bitter, biter (“bitter”), from Proto-West Germanic *bitr, from Proto-Germanic *bitraz (“bitter”), equivalent to bite + -er (agent noun suffix) used attributively. Cognate with Saterland Frisian, West Frisian, Low German, Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bitter, Icelandic bitur (all meaning “bitter”).

From bit + -er.

Words formed from bitter

Bitter electromagnet
Bitter plate
bitter African daisy
bitter albizia
bitter almond
bitter aloes
bitter apple
bitter bark
bitter bean
bitter bolete
bitter bossie
bitter bracket
bitterbrush
bitter buchu
[pl=s
bitterbush
bitter cherry
bitter chocolate
bitter coco
bitter cornsalad
bittercress
bitter-cress
bitter cryptandra
bitter cucumber
bitter dock
bitter dogbane
bitter drumstick tree
bitter fleabane
bitter forest grape
bitterful
bitter funnel
bitter ganna
bitter gooseberry
bitter gourd
bitter grape
bitter herbs
bitter hickory
bitter hymenoxys
bitterish
bitter kambro
bitter karoo
bitter karree
bitter-leaf
bitter leaf
bitterless
bitter lettuce
bitterling
bitterly
bittermelon
bitter melon
bitter milkwort
bitter myrobalan
bitterness
bitter nightshade)
bitternut
bitter nutmeg
bitter orange
bitterorange
bitter oysterling
bitter panicgrass

Phrases with bitter

35 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bitter

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bitter

What does bitter mean?: Bitter means having an acrid taste (usually from a basic substance).
What is bitter in Hindi?: Bitter in Hindi is कड़वा (kaṛvā), कड़ा (kaṛā), कटु (kaṭu). See Bitter meaning in Hindi.
How do you use bitter in a sentence?: Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.
What part of speech is bitter?: Bitter can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce bitter?: Bitter is pronounced /ˈbɪt.ə/ (UK).

Words near bitter in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: bitter (page history and authors); Bitter (page history and authors); bitter (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಕಟು (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਕੌੜਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); કડવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); तितो (Nepali) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

Cite this entry: “bitter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bitter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.