Word.ws English Dictionary

sharper

US/ˈʃɑɹpɚ/

sharper is the comparative form of sharp.

Meaning of sharp

Adjective

sharp (comparative sharper, superlative sharpest)

  1. Terminating in a point or edge, especially one that can cut or pierce easily; not dull, obtuse, or rounded.
    • I keep my knives sharp so that they don't slip unexpectedly while carving.
  2. (colloquial) Intelligent.
    • My nephew is a sharp lad; he can count to 100 in six languages, and he's only five years old.
  3. Raised by one semitone (denoted by the symbol ⟨♯⟩ after the name of the note).
  4. Higher in pitch than required.
    • The orchestra's third violin several times was sharp about an eighth of a tone.
  5. Having a strong acrid or acidic taste.
    • Milly couldn't stand sharp cheeses when she was pregnant, because they made her nauseated.
    Synonyms:
    acrid, pungent
  6. Sudden, abrupt, intense, rapid.
    • A pregnant woman during labor normally experiences a number of sharp contractions.
    Synonyms:
    abrupt, acute, stabbing

See all 49 meanings of sharp

Noun

sharper (plural sharpers)

  1. (dated) A swindler; a cheat; a professional gambler who makes his living by cheating.
    • I could plainly diſcover from whence one Family derives a long Chin; why a ſecond hath abounded with Knaves for two Generations, and Fools for two more; why a third happened to be crack-brained, and a fourth to be Sharpers.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Further Account of Glubbdubdrib. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte...
    • Our young gentlemen who go to Rome will do well to be upon their guard against a set of sharpers, (some of them of our own country,) who deal in pictures and antiques, and very often impose upon the uninformed stranger, by selling him trash, as the productions of the most celebrated artists.1766, T[obias] Smollett, “Letter XXIX”, in Travels through France and Italy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] R[oberts] Baldwin, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    chiseler, spiv

Proper noun capitalized: Sharper

Sharper (plural Sharpers)

  1. A surname.

Synonyms of sharper

Forms of sharper

Noun
pluralsharpers
Proper noun
pluralSharpers

Origin of sharper

From sharp + -er.

Words formed from sharper

Words that rhyme with sharper

Questions about sharper

What does sharper mean?
Sharper means a swindler; a cheat; a professional gambler who makes his living by cheating.
What is sharper the comparative form of?
Sharper is the comparative form of sharp.
What part of speech is sharper?
Sharper can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sharper?
Sharper is pronounced /ˈʃɑɹpɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of sharper?
The plural of sharper is sharpers.

Words near sharper in the dictionary

  1. sharpening stones
  2. sharpening up
  3. sharpenings
  4. sharpens
  5. sharpens up
  6. sharper
  7. sharper-toothed
  8. sharpers
  9. Sharperton
  10. sharpest
  11. sharpest-toothed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sharper (page history and authors); Sharper (page history and authors); sharp (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sharper.wav.

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