Word of the Day:
cynical
What It Means
Of or relating to the belief that human actions are motivated only or primarily by base desires or selfishness.
Skeptical of the integrity, sincerity, or motives of others.
Bitterly or jadedly distrustful or contemptuous; mocking.
Cynical in Context
“On any given day, those who get their news from the loudest voices on the right—Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart News—are bombarded with partisan propaganda, conspiracy theories, and cynical rage-bait.”
Did You Know?
Originated 1542, from Classical Latin cynicus (“Cynic/cynic”, adjective) + -al. By surface analysis, cynic + -al. In reference to dogs, with allusion to the ultimate etymology (Ancient Greek κυνικός (kunikós, “doglike”)).
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cynical (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “cynical.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cynical. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
