incisive

English

Etymology

Late Middle English (in the sense “cutting, penetrating”), borrowed from Medieval Latin incīsīvus, from incīdō (“to cut in, cut through”) +‎ -īvus (“-ive”, adjectival suffix). Compare Middle French incisif.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsaɪ.sɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪsɪv

Adjective

incisive (comparative more incisive, superlative most incisive)

1. Intelligently analytical and concise. (of a person or mental process)
   1. Accurate and sharply focused. (of an account)
2. Quickly proceeding to judgment and forceful in expression. (of an action)

   Synonyms: decisive, forthright

   An incisive producer, who expressed vehement disapproval with my pitch upon my first sentence.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.

3. Having the quality of incising, cutting, or penetrating, as with a sharp instrument; trenchant.
   • 1862–1863, Mary Ann Evans, Romola:

     An incisive, high voice.

   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Second Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     And her incisive smile accrediting / That treason of false witness in my blush.

   Synonyms: sharp, acute, sarcastic, biting

4. (anatomy, relational) Of or relating to the incisors.

   the incisive bones, the premaxillaries

Derived terms

• incisive bone
• incisive canal
• incisive fossa
• incisively
• incisiveness
• incisivity
• interincisive
• maxilloincisive
• nasoincisive
• unincisive

 

Translations

quickly proceeding to judgment

• Bulgarian: проницателен (bg) (pronicatelen)
• Catalan: incisiu
• Finnish: suoraviivainen (fi)
• French: incisif (fr)
• Spanish: incisivo (es)

relating to the incisors

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 門齒的／门齿的 (zh) (ménchǐ de)

References

• “incisive”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “incisive”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.si.ziv/
• Homophone: incisives

Adjective

incisive

1. feminine singular of incisif

Noun

incisive f (plural incisives)

1. incisor (tooth)

Further reading

• “incisive”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /in.t͡ʃiˈzi.ve/
• Rhymes: -ive
• Hyphenation: in‧ci‧sì‧ve

Adjective

incisive

1. feminine plural of incisivo

Anagrams

• inveisci

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /in.kiːˈsiː.u̯e/, [ɪŋkiːˈs̠iːu̯ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /in.t͡ʃiˈsi.ve/, [in̠ʲt͡ʃiˈs̬iːve]

Adjective

incīsīve

1. vocative masculine singular of incīsīvus