Definition of "pungent" []

• Affecting the organs of taste or smell with a sharp acrid sensation. (adjective)
• Penetrating, biting, or caustic: pungent satire. (adjective)
• To the point; sharp: pungent talks during which the major issues were confronted. (adjective)
• Pointed: a pungent leaf. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It's a strongly-flvoured salad, pretty pungent from the raw garlic and onion, so really letting the veggies marinate (add some cubed up tofu too for yummy protein "sponges"!) as long as possible is key to avoiding a mouthful of fire!"
• "However, such a proximate (immediate cause) explanation does not address the ultimate (evolutionary) questions of why cuisines that contain pungent plant products appeal to people and why some phytochemicals are tastier than others."
• "Mrs. Carlyle's writings whatever was of most literary merit or popular interest; but they are still intrinsically worthy of publication, for even her "notekins," as her husband called them, contain pungent particles and happy turns of expression, while adscititiously they deserve attention, because they clear up/[Page vi]/some obscure points in a complicated controversy and help towards a just judgment of two prominent figures in our English Pantheon."