cynical
adjective
Simple meaning
Believing that people usually act only for selfish reasons.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sinihkuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɪnɪkəl
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
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.
Showing contempt for accepted moral standards by one's actions.
Of or relating to the Cynics, a sect of Ancient Greek philosophers who believed virtue to be the only good and self-control to be the only means of achieving virtue.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of or relating to the belief that human actions are motivated only or primarily by base desires or selfishness.
Used this way, cynical 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
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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.