What's the difference between pungent and sharp?

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.

Sharp


Definition:

  • (superl.) Having a very thin edge or fine point; of a nature to cut or pierce easily; not blunt or dull; keen.
  • (superl.) Terminating in a point or edge; not obtuse or rounded; somewhat pointed or edged; peaked or ridged; as, a sharp hill; sharp features.
  • (superl.) Affecting the sense as if pointed or cutting, keen, penetrating, acute: to the taste or smell, pungent, acid, sour, as ammonia has a sharp taste and odor; to the hearing, piercing, shrill, as a sharp sound or voice; to the eye, instantaneously brilliant, dazzling, as a sharp flash.
  • (superl.) High in pitch; acute; as, a sharp note or tone.
  • (superl.) Raised a semitone in pitch; as, C sharp (C/), which is a half step, or semitone, higher than C.
  • (superl.) So high as to be out of tune, or above true pitch; as, the tone is sharp; that instrument is sharp. Opposed in all these senses to flat.
  • (superl.) Very trying to the feelings; piercing; keen; severe; painful; distressing; as, sharp pain, weather; a sharp and frosty air.
  • (superl.) Cutting in language or import; biting; sarcastic; cruel; harsh; rigorous; severe; as, a sharp rebuke.
  • (superl.) Of keen perception; quick to discern or distinguish; having nice discrimination; acute; penetrating; sagacious; clever; as, a sharp eye; sharp sight, hearing, or judgment.
  • (superl.) Eager in pursuit; keen in quest; impatient for gratification; keen; as, a sharp appetite.
  • (superl.) Fierce; ardent; fiery; violent; impetuous.
  • (superl.) Keenly or unduly attentive to one's own interest; close and exact in dealing; shrewd; as, a sharp dealer; a sharp customer.
  • (superl.) Composed of hard, angular grains; gritty; as, sharp sand.
  • (superl.) Steep; precipitous; abrupt; as, a sharp ascent or descent; a sharp turn or curve.
  • (superl.) Uttered in a whisper, or with the breath alone, without voice, as certain consonants, such as p, k, t, f; surd; nonvocal; aspirated.
  • (adv.) To a point or edge; piercingly; eagerly; sharply.
  • (adv.) Precisely; exactly; as, we shall start at ten o'clock sharp.
  • (n.) A sharp tool or weapon.
  • (n.) The character [/] used to indicate that the note before which it is placed is to be raised a half step, or semitone, in pitch.
  • (n.) A sharp tone or note.
  • (n.) A portion of a stream where the water runs very rapidly.
  • (n.) A sewing needle having a very slender point; a needle of the most pointed of the three grades, blunts, betweens, and sharps.
  • (n.) Same as Middlings, 1.
  • (n.) An expert.
  • (v. t.) To sharpen.
  • (v. t.) To raise above the proper pitch; to elevate the tone of; especially, to raise a half step, or semitone, above the natural tone.
  • (v. i.) To play tricks in bargaining; to act the sharper.
  • (v. i.) To sing above the proper pitch.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Basal 20 alpha DHP levels remained low until a sharp rise at mid pro-oestrus.
  • (2) Whole-virus vaccines prepared by Merck Sharp and Dohme (West Point, Pa.) and Merrell-National Laboratories (Cincinnati, Ohio) and subunit vaccines prepared by Parke, Davis and Company (Detroit, Mich.) and Wyeth Laboratories (Philadelphia, Pa.) were given intramuscularly in concentrations of 800, 400, or 200 chick cell-agglutinating units per dose.
  • (3) Gonadectomy of females was accompanied by changes in the activity of individual HAS links in different direction--some reduction of ACTH in the hypophysis, a sharp and significant fall of the peripheral blood glucocorticoid level and a marked significant elevation of hydrococortisone production in the adrenal cortex in vitro.
  • (4) The University of the Arts London and Sunderland, Sheffield Hallam, Manchester Met and Leeds Met university have also experienced sharp declines in applications.
  • (5) A sharp decrease in oxygen uptake occurred in Neurospora crassa cells that were transferred from 30 degrees C to 45 degrees C, and the respiration that resumed later at 45 degrees C was cyanide-insensitive.
  • (6) In contrast to findings in the rat and dog, no sharp drop but a gradual fall in CLi was observed at decreasing FENa values down to 0.02%.
  • (7) A more specific differentiation, as indicated by the sharp increase in GAD levels which was concurrent with an increase in interneuronal contacts, lagged behind the initial growth.
  • (8) It appears that the decline in plasma IGF-I lags considerably behind the sharp fall in plasma GH levels and expression of hepatic IGF-I mRNA.
  • (9) Supplementation of Mg resulted in a sharp increase in serum PTH level with a rapid disappearance of the dissociation between the two immunoassays of PTH.
  • (10) A.CA animals were extremely susceptible, showing a sharp and sustained increase in parasitemia starting on day 12, followed by death no later than day 15 post-inoculation.
  • (11) There was a sharp transition with actin nearly saturated with S1: when the S1 to actin ratio was low, the kinetics were fast (K1 greater than 300 microM, k2 greater than 40 s-1); when it was high, they were slow (K1 = 14 microM, k2 = 2 s-1).
  • (12) Low calcium causes an increase in optimum frequency, a decrease in current threshold, and an increase in sharpness of tuning in both real axons and axons computed according to the Hodgkin-Huxley formulation; high calcium causes opposite effects.
  • (13) The Tea Party movement has turned climate denial into a litmus test of conservative credentials – and that has made climate change one of the most sharp divisions between Obama and Romney.
  • (14) The presence in lamprey kidney of a loop which is similar to Henle's loop in mammals and birds indicates that the development of the system of osmotic concentration conditioned by the formation in the kidney of the medulla and from a sharp increase in renal arterial blood supply.
  • (15) There is no longer a sharp dividing line between working and rentiering.
  • (16) We are going to see a sharp fall unless sellers hold the sector up by making aggressive offers.
  • (17) A sharp increase in the intensity of lipids biochemiluminiscence and decrease in the tissue homogenates biochemiluminiscence were observed during the period of progressive tumour growth on the 6-8 days following introduction of the virus.
  • (18) By no means is this a new theme, but it has taken on an added sharpness and urgency after the conferences.
  • (19) The blood lymphocytes were small with scanty cytoplasm, densely condensed nuclear chromatin, and deep clefts originating in sharp angles from the nuclear surface.
  • (20) In sharp contrast, the coverage provided by the various mainstream news channels and newspapers not only seems – with some exceptions – unresponsive and stilted, but often non-existent.