SOURNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sourness mean? 

• SOURNESS (noun)
  The noun SOURNESS has 3 senses:

1. the taste experience when vinegar or lemon juice is taken into the mouth

2. the property of being acidic

3. a sullen moody resentful disposition

  Familiarity information: SOURNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOURNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The taste experience when vinegar or lemon juice is taken into the mouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

sour; sourness; tartness

Hypernyms ("sourness" is a kind of...):

gustatory perception; gustatory sensation; taste; taste perception; taste sensation (the sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sourness"):

acidity; acidulousness (the taste experience when something acidic is taken into the mouth)

Derivation:

sour (one of the four basic taste sensations; like the taste of vinegar or lemons)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The property of being acidic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

acidity; sour; sourness

Hypernyms ("sourness" is a kind of...):

taste property (a property appreciated via the sense of taste)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sourness"):

acerbity; tartness (a sharp sour taste)

vinegariness; vinegarishness (a sourness resembling that of vinegar)

Derivation:

sour (smelling of fermentation or staleness)

sour (having a sharp biting taste)

sour (in an unpalatable state)

sour (one of the four basic taste sensations; like the taste of vinegar or lemons)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A sullen moody resentful disposition

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

moroseness; sourness; sulkiness; sullenness

Hypernyms ("sourness" is a kind of...):

ill nature (a disagreeable, irritable, or malevolent disposition)

Derivation:

sour (showing a brooding ill humor)

 Context examples 

Mrs. Ferrars was a little, thin woman, upright, even to formality, in her figure, and serious, even to sourness, in her aspect.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Nor could I help thinking this a prudent course, since she looked at me out of the pickle-jar, with as great an access of sourness as if her black eyes had absorbed its contents.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)