What's the difference between piquant and pungent?

Piquant


Definition:

  • (a.) Stimulating to the taste; giving zest; tart; sharp; pungent; as, a piquant anecdote.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The present experiment shows that the piquant chow eaten by rats produced a fall in rectal temperature 48 h later.
  • (2) And there are entries that point to Peel as an incorrigible collector and tireless champion of the recherche: with all due respect to an oeuvre that included the piquant-sounding Fuckin' 4 Bucks and I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, how many albums by Washington DC splattercore pioneers the Accüsed does one man really need?
  • (3) One final thought: if Lebedev is toying with the idea of distributing the Independent for free, he may well be able, piquantly, to acquire the paper and its Sunday sister for the same price.
  • (4) The great lexicographer, of course, is as fat in fame as ever, though more for his piquant remarks to Boswell than for his own writings.
  • (5) In three experiments on the social induction of food preferences in rats, I found: (a) that eight 30-min exposures of a naive "observer" rat to a "demonstrator" rat fed one of two approximately equipalatable diets produced observer preference for the diet fed to its demonstrator that lasted for more than a month, (b) that simple exposure of naive subjects to a diet itself, rather than to a rat that had eaten a diet, was not sufficient to enhance preference for that diet, and (c) that lasting preference for an unpalatable, piquant diet could also be established by exposing naive rats to demonstrators that had eaten the piquant diet, but not by simply exposure to the piquant diet itself.
  • (6) In this series, the choice between piquant and nonpiquant chow showed that 4 rats out of 5 preferred to eat the chow without capsaicin.
  • (7) After this habituation period, when free to choose, 3 rats out of 4 preferred eating the piquant chow.
  • (8) The food cooked in this predominantly Muslim neighbourhood is as piquant as the hot pink and burnt orange painted houses that rise gently up the lower slopes of Signal Hill, part of Table Mountain.
  • (9) Clearly, this hyperreal simulation juxtaposes piquantly with the all-too real world in which Uruguayan football fans send death threats to the Newcastle United defender Paul Dummett for clattering their compatriot, striker Luis Suarez.
  • (10) The present experiment provides some evidence that rats accustomed to eat piquant food manifested, when free to choose, a preference for an innately unpalatable piquant chow.
  • (11) He rejoined the Guardian as sketchwriter and remained there for the rest of his working life, consistently finding even on the dullest and least eventful of days something vivid, piquant and unexpected to say.
  • (12) Just as Lolita , as Nabokov piquantly notes in his afterword, was variously read as "old Europe debauching young America" or "young America debauching old Europe", GTA IV leaves itself interpretatively open as to whether Niko is corrupted by America or whether he and his ilk (many of the most vicious characters whose paths Niko crosses are immigrants) are themselves bacterial agents of corruption.
  • (13) There is real dissent in Italy, and in its gentle but piquant way, Reality is part of that.
  • (14) It’s tempting to imagine that writer and director Andrew Haigh conjured that line in response to the more piquant criticisms of his series, whose lack of an obvious agenda led some to label it “post-gay”.
  • (15) When the club switched the catering contract from one local firm to another in the early 2000s, the new chef spent months trying to perfect the piquant blend, which his piqued predecessor refused to pass on.

Pungent


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Causing a sharp sensation, as of the taste, smell, or feelings; pricking; biting; acrid; as, a pungent spice.
  • (v. t.) Sharply painful; penetrating; poignant; severe; caustic; stinging.
  • (v. t.) Prickly-pointed; hard and sharp.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) While his organising framework was Marxian (beginning as "an attempt to understand the arts", as he said himself), the subjects included mountain-climbing, opera, jazz and sartorial and eating fashions as well as work patterns, class solidarity and the movements of international finance – all delivered in a marvellously flexible and pungent style.
  • (2) Capsaicin is a pungent irritant present in peppers of the Capsicum family.
  • (3) This variety is not considered in this series of reviews covering primary processing, production, international trade, chemistry, and biochemistry of functional components--the red keto carotenoids, the aromatic volatiles and the pungent capsaicinoids in Parts I to III.
  • (4) It has a metallic, pungently sweaty kick to it, as if someone has absorbed the fluids of a gym changing-room floor into a lump of gluey cheese-like matter.
  • (5) Administration of capsaicin (CAP) and its related pungent, nonanoyl vanillylamide (NVA) produced significant dose-dependent hypothermic response in mice at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees C. CAP was approximately equieffective to NVA in producing hypothermia.
  • (6) The Ned Waihopai River Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand (£9.99, Waitrose ; Majestic ) There's all the pungent verdant grass-and-gooseberry of classic Kiwi sauvignon here to match with asparagus, plus the generosity of fruit and limey acidity that will work just as well with a mildly spicy and herby Vietnamese or Thai stir-fry.
  • (7) Capsaicin is the main pungent principle of hot pepper, which is consumed in high quantities by humans worldwide.
  • (8) An increase in catecholamine, especially epinephrine, secretion was observed not only on capsaicin infusion but also on piperine (a pungent principle of pepper) and zingerone (ginger) infusion.
  • (9) After 170 years, his rehabilitation is complete, and for Toledo his elongated figures and pungent colours are now an object of civic pride, as Gaudí is for Barcelona.
  • (10) It is anxiety at the great acceleration of social, economic and demographic change wrought by the age of globalisation, expressed most pungently in resentment of mass migration.
  • (11) Measurement of a reflex, transitory apnea produced upon inhalation of pungent chemicals holds promise as an objective indicator of the functional status of the CCS.
  • (12) The pain-mediating function of SP can be blocked selectively by capsaicin, the pungent component of red pepper, which leads to desensitization of the receptors and degeneration of the afferent C fibers without affecting other sensory qualities.
  • (13) Capsaicin, the pungent principal in red pepper, has been shown to damage small-diameter peptide-containing sensory neurons.
  • (14) When they first encounter their "admirer and pupil Zola" he strikes them as a "worn-out Normalien, at once sturdy and puny" but with "a vibrant note of pungent determination and furious energy".
  • (15) And yet the country has some of the most pungent views on immigration on the continent.
  • (16) Results show that the characteristics of the mutual effects of tastant and pungent stimulus depend on the particular tastant employed.
  • (17) This wasn't the usual loveless EastEnders bouquet – a sickly-sweet accompaniment to the ever-present stench of batter mix, rotting market produce and Phil Mitchell's blouson runoff – but a pungent, altogether denser concoction.
  • (18) Among the three new compounds, hazeleamide (3) was found to show a pungent taste and to exert a moderate antimalarial activity in an in vitro test system.
  • (19) While, sulfur-containing and volatile pungent principles, allylisothiocyanate (mustard, etc.)
  • (20) The non-pungent nonenoyl benzylamide produces neither hypothermia nor desensitization.7.