Acidic

How to spell acidic

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce acidic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does acidic mean?

1. adjectiveHaving the chemical properties of an acid, or tasting sharply sour.
2. adjectiveSharply critical or bitter in tone.

Acidic in a sentence

• The soil was too acidic for the roses to thrive.

• Her acidic review left the author stinging for weeks.

• Lemon juice gives the sauce a pleasantly acidic tang.

• He made an acidic comment about the manager during the meeting.

Where does acidic come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin acidus, meaning 'sour' or 'sharp to the taste', which itself grew from the verb acere, 'to be sour'. The same family gives English a cluster of tart relatives, including 'acrid', 'acerbic', and 'acute', all carrying the idea of something sharp or piercing. The noun 'acid' arrived in English in the 1600s as scientists began describing sour-tasting chemical substances, and the adjective 'acidic' was assembled later by adding the productive suffix -ic to form an adjective meaning 'of the nature of acid'. The spelling stays close to the Latin source, keeping a single c before the -id, which is the part that trips writers who expect a doubled letter. Because the root literally meant 'sour', the modern chemical and figurative senses both still echo that original taste on the tongue.

How the word is built

• acid (from Latin acidus: sour)
• -ic (adjective suffix: having the nature of)