vitriol

1. 1.

   (H2SO4) a highly corrosive acid made from sulfur dioxide; widely used in the chemical industry

   Synonymsoil of vitriolsulfuric acidsulphuric acid

   Broaderacid

   Narrowerbattery acid
2. 2.

   abusive or venomous language used to express blame or censure or bitter deep-seated ill will

   Synonymsvituperationinvective

   Broaderabuse

1. 1.

   expose to the effects of vitriol or injure with vitriol

   Broadersubject
2. 2.

   subject to bitter verbal abuse

   Broaderattack

Other forms of vitriol

plural

vitriols·

past tense or participle

vitriolled

present participle

vitriolling

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 vitriol

What does vitriol mean?

vitriol means "(H2SO4) a highly corrosive acid made from sulfur dioxide; widely used in the chemical industry". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in vitriol?

vitriol has 3 syllables: vit-ri-ol. The stress falls on "vit". In IPA it is /ˈvɪtɹiəl/.

What is another word for vitriol?

Close synonyms include oil of vitriol, sulfuric acid, sulphuric acid, vituperation, invective. 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 vitriol a common word?

vitriol 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.