bittersweet means both bitter and sweet. It carries an Arena rating of 1356, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bittersweet ranks #2,351 of 14,308 for Most Malleable Words, #2,382 of 14,297 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,574 of 14,448 for Funniest Words, #5,707 of 14,340 for Most Vivid Words.
bittersweet is pronounced /ˈbɪtɚˌswit/.
Why “bittersweet” is a great word
Arousing pleasure alloyed with pain or regret, as an experience or memory that is simultaneously happy and sad. From Middle English *bitterswete*, *biterswete*, a compound of *bitter* ("sharp, acrid") and *sweet* ("pleasing to the taste or mind"), first recorded in use between 1350 and 1400. Unlike "poignant," which pierces with a singular keenness of sorrow, or "wistful," which lingers in a fog of vague longing, "bittersweet" insists on the inseparable alloy of its components. It is the golden light of a late autumn afternoon, the laughter that catches in the throat at a reunion tinged with absence, the final page of a beloved book—a quiet acknowledgment that the most piercing beauty is the kind that knows its own ending.
Etymology
From Middle English bitterswete, biterswete, equivalent to bitter + sweet. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bitterswäit (“bittersweet”), West Frisian bittersoet (“bittersweet”), Dutch bitterzoet (“bittersweet”), German bittersüß (“bittersweet”), Danish bittersød (“bittersweet”), Swedish bittersöt (“bittersweet”).
adj
- Both bitter and sweet.“bittersweet chocolate”
- Expressing contrasting emotions of pain and pleasure.“The break-up was very bittersweet; they both hurt to end it, but were glad it was over.”
- Of bittersweet color (see the noun section, below).
noun
- Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara).“Bitter ſweete bringeth foorth wooddie ſtalks as doth the Vine, parted into many ſlender creeping braunches, by which it climeth and taketh holde of hedges and ſhrubbes next vnto it. […] Bitter ſweet doth grow in moiſt places about ditches, riuers, and hedges, almoſt euery where.”
- Bittersweetness.“I had once before visited these three villages, Skedans, Tanoo and Cumshewa. The bitter-sweet of their overwhelming loneliness created a longing to return to them.”
- A vine, of the genus Celastrus, having small orange fruit that open to reveal red seeds.“Over by the creek-bed scarlet-flamed sumac shouldered the silver-green of the willows, and orange-colored bittersweet crept through the tangle of wild plums.”
- A variety of apple with a bittersweet taste.“"They had a good crop of bitter-sweets, they couldn’t grind them all"—nodding towards an orchard where some heaps of apples had been left lying ever since the ingathering.”
- Any variety of clam in the family Glycymerididae
- A pinkish-orange color. Any color in between scarlet and orange.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.