scathing.

Extremely harsh and cutting in criticism or judgment.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a scathing review
• scathing criticism

On the page

Her scathing review focused on the exhibition's dishonest labels.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more scathing; superlative most scathing 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: description, character. Commonness: moderately common.