How to Use poignance in a Sentence

poignance

noun
  • But there’s a poignance — and maybe a special dilemma — to that.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 27 May 2022
  • The book stands out for its raw power, poignance, and moments of grace.
    — Barbara Spindel, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Sep. 2021
  • This adds poignance to their relentless commitment to the next put-down or joke.
    — Gary Thompson, Philly.com, 24 Aug. 2017
  • This adds poignance to their relentless commitment to the next put-down or joke.
    — Gary Thompson, Detroit Free Press, 1 Sep. 2017
  • The poignance of these images have been peaceful counterpoints to the rage sweeping across the country.
    — Harry Bruinius, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 June 2020
  • When the dialogue survives, its isolation tends to heighten its poignance or irony.
    — J.r. Jones, Chicago Reader, 26 Apr. 2018
  • This concoction was a delicious souffle of equal parts humor and poignance.
    — Dan Cryer, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Mar. 2018
  • The production, which featured an all-Black cast, was heavy but not without moments of joy and poignance.
    — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 28 Sep. 2021
  • Mixed in with these emotions is the poignance attached to Fisher's death a year ago toward the end of production.
    — Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Dec. 2017
  • Since Sulli’s passing, the song’s looming dread has only magnified, but so has the poignance of its bridge.
    — Billboard Staff, Billboard, 25 Nov. 2019
  • That milestone might have held a particular poignance for Branch Rickey.
    — The Christian Science Monitor, Christian Science Monitor, 17 Jan. 2025
  • There is an unexpected poignance, too, to text that has not yet been sent, still available for revision or, perhaps, deletion.
    — Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2020
  • Cosentino says the play contains bits of dry humor, poignance and the bluntness/directness for which Atwood is known.
    — cleveland, 5 Oct. 2019
  • In the history of Dawn Turner, there’s far more poignance here than at the home where Louis Armstrong lived.
    — Christopher Borrelli, chicagotribune.com, 3 Sep. 2021
  • The piercing cries of the bugle, along with the ways in which the boys struggle mightily with the unseen force of the wind, are full of poignance and futility.
    — Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2021
  • The literature created by AI is dull and devoid of any real poignance.
    — Elizabeth Bruenig, The Atlantic, 27 May 2026
  • The long walk in the cold obliged us to huddle for warmth, and the fascinating narration drove home the brutal reality of human bondage with great poignance.
    — Zachary Lewis, cleveland, 25 Mar. 2021
  • There is an effortless feeling to Brinkley’s sentences, a casual beauty that lends poignance to all his confused boys, his sad and angry men.
    — Brittany Allen, Longreads, 24 May 2018
  • The talented team of actors, who recorded the play over Zoom, employ a variety of emotions and accents that add realism and poignance to the play.
    — Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Her superpower is her expression, her peerless ability to turn phrases with poignance and uncover meaning inside chords and at points where many struggle.
    — Zachary Lewis, cleveland, 23 Aug. 2021
  • Antique daguerreotypes and evocations of the journeys of Odysseus and Telemachus add poignance to a heart-twisting story of love strong enough to outlast life itself.
    — Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 10 Dec. 2021
  • There’s the sour news, which is complicated by tangential sensations of grotesquerie and elegance, fury and poignance, and, perhaps, of philosophical insight.
    — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 25 Nov. 2019
  • Beside blank walls, slim windows, and aging radiators, commonplace objects assume surprising poignance.
    — Eren Orbey, The New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2019
  • By contrast, Borghi limns a figure of comingled sensuality, threat and eventual poignance, without ever appearing to reach for effect.
    — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025
  • The resulting images are unique tintypes, giving Sternbach’s contemporary subjects, in their wetsuits and bikinis, the poignance and presence of figures unmoored in time.
    — Vince Aletti, The New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2022
  • Tharmarajah provides a great balance of comic relief and utter poignance, explaining his survival techniques as an orphan, carving out a pragmatic path in life leading to a particular kind of soaring.
    — David John Chávez, Mercury News, 3 June 2026
  • Spielberg revives ‘80s slapstick era Tom Hanks, adding the poignance of an immigration tale and a splash of international politics.
    — Christopher Borrelli, chicagotribune.com, 24 Mar. 2022
  • That subplot epitomizes how showrunners Matt Youngberg and Francisco Angones layered nostalgia with misfit-toy poignance.
    — Darren Franich, EW.com, 19 Feb. 2021
  • Raylan’s eternal opposite number is Boyd Crowder, a local boy gone hysterically bad whom Walton Goggins played with joyful gusto and shades of poignance.
    — Darren Franich, EW.com, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Mailer’s defiant tone rings hollow amid the show’s overall poignance, which derives from the retrospective mood imposed by Tannenbaum’s curatorial voice, and the remembrances in which Powers is quoted.
    — Steven Litt, cleveland, 6 June 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'poignance.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: