Cynical

How to spell cynical

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce cynical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cynical mean?

1. adjectiveBelieving that people are motivated mainly by self-interest, and therefore distrustful of their sincerity.

Cynical in a sentence

• Years of broken promises left her cynical about every political campaign.

• He gave a cynical shrug when the company announced its sudden concern for the environment.

Where does cynical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word goes back to the Greek kynikos, which literally meant 'dog-like', built on kyon, the ordinary Greek word for 'dog'. It became the nickname of a school of ancient philosophers, the Cynics, who rejected wealth and convention and were said to live as simply and shamelessly as dogs; their teacher Diogenes was famous for this stark austerity. The sense drifted from that philosophical movement toward the modern meaning of a person who distrusts the sincerity of others and assumes the worst about human motives. English took the word in the late sixteenth century, by way of the Latin cynicus and the French cynique, and the adjective cynical settled into its present spelling. The buried 'y' is the spelling trap, and it is a direct fossil of that Greek kyon 'dog' rather than the more obvious 'i' an English ear expects.

How the word is built

• cynic (from Greek kynikos: dog-like)
• -al (adjective suffix)