caustic
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahstikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɑstɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
of languageetc.
Sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.
noun
Any chemical substance that burns or destroys living tissue
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
Used this way, caustic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A caustic substance produced by heating limestone.
A potassium compound often used in agriculture and industry.
Witty language used to convey insults or scorn.
A strongly alkaline caustic used in manufacturing soap and paper and aluminum and various sodium compounds.
Silver nitrate fused into sticks and formerly used as a caustic.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: capable of burning or corroding or destroying organic tissue
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.