incisive.

Clear and penetrating in identifying essential points.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• incisive analysis
• incisive comment

On the page

Her incisive question exposed the missing premise.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more incisive; superlative most incisive when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: character, description. Commonness: moderately common.