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- pronunciation:
- puhn
j
 n
si
- features:
- Word Combinations (noun), Word Parts
| part of speech: |
noun |
| definition: |
sharpness or bite in taste or smell.
The pungency of mustard makes a hot dog taste better. |
adjective + (n.)pungency
aromatic, sheer, sweet, usual, yellow
verb + (n.)pungency
add, lack
noun + (n.)pungency
air, compound, cooking, flavor, gladiola, horseradish, oil, onion, scent, seed
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The word pungency
contains the following part:
-ance, -ence, -ency, -ancy
Latin
noun-forming suffix
that means state, quality, or act of
  More about this word part:
The suffix group -ance
, -ence
, -ency
, -ancy
attaches to verbs and Latin verb stems to create nouns. The suffix -ance
is usually attached to whole English words, whereas -ence
is usually attached to roots: compare eloquence
and acceptance
. For most nouns ending in -ance
, -ence
, -ency
, -ancy
, there is a correponsponding adjective form ending in -ant, -ent.
Example words:
absence, acceptance, accountancy, admittance, agency, ambiance, ambience, appetency, arrogance, ascendancy, attendance, audience, belligerency, benevolence, brilliancy, buoyancy, cadence, clemency, complacency, conference, confidence, consequence, conservancy, consistency, constancy, constituency, contingency, counterinsurgency, countertendency, currency, decency, deficiency, delinquency, dependency, despondency, difference, disappearance, discrepancy, disturbance, efficiency, eloquence, emergency, equivalency, excellency, exigency, expectancy, expediency, fluency, frequency, hesitancy, importance, incoherency, inconsistency, incumbency, indecency, independence, independency, inefficiency, infancy, insufficiency, insurgency, interagency, interdependency, itinerancy, latency, leniency, malfeasance, malignancy, mendicancy, nonbelligerency, nonemergency, occupancy, occurrence, patency, permanency, piquancy, poignancy, potency, preference, pregnancy, presidency, proficiency, pungency, redundancy, regency, remembrance, residence, residency, science, solvency, stringency, subagency, sufficiency, superefficiency, superintendency, tenancy, tendency, transparency, urgency, vacancy, vagrancy
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