cynic

1. 1.

   someone who is critical of the motives of others

   Synonymsfaultfinder

   Broaderunpleasant person

   Narrowerdetractor
2. 2.

   a member of a group of ancient Greek philosophers who advocated the doctrine that virtue is the only good and that the essence of virtue is self-control

   Broaderphilosopher

Other forms of cynic

plural

cynics·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about cynic

What does cynic mean?

cynic means "someone who is critical of the motives of others". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in cynic?

cynic has 2 syllables: cyn-ic. The stress falls on "cyn". In IPA it is /ˈsɪnɪk/.

What is another word for cynic?

Close synonyms include faultfinder. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cynic a common word?

cynic is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.