cloying means unpleasantly excessive. It carries an Arena rating of 1507, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, cloying ranks #1,633 of 17,052 for Scariest Words, #1,773 of 17,052 for Most Incisive Words, #1,807 of 28,628 for Qualifying, #2,238 of 17,052 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
cloying is pronounced /ˈklɔɪ.ɪŋ/.
Why “cloying” is a great word
Describing something that sickens through an oppressive surfeit, typically of sweetness or mawkish feeling. From the verb cloy (from Middle English acloyen, "to hinder, injure, or satiate," from Anglo-French encloer, "to drive a nail into," from Latin clavus, "nail") + the suffix -ing. Unlike "saccharine," which implies a false, artificial sweetness of tone, or "rich," which celebrates a pleasingly full intensity, cloying names the precise moment any abundance curdles into a sickening weight. It is the third bite of an icing-swathed cake that turns the stomach, the protracted embrace that becomes a trap, or the sentimental film whose orchestral swell demands a tear—the point where pleasure, nailed in place, begins to suffocate.
Etymology
By surface analysis, cloy + -ing.
adj
- Unpleasantly excessive.e.g.“The cloying fondness she displayed was what, in the end, drove me away.”
- Excessively sweet.e.g.“Oliver (Barry Keoghan): I don't normally like chocolate cake. / Elspeth (Rosamund Pike): Yes, it can be cloying, can't it?”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.