bitterness

Anger and hurt that remain because you feel someone treated you unfairly.

• He spoke with bitterness about the divorce.
• Her bitterness faded when they finally apologized.
• Do you still feel bitterness towards him?

How to use it: bitterness towards someone (She felt no bitterness towards her former employer.)

Similar words: resentment, rancor

Common phrases: feel bitterness, bitterness towards someone, full of bitterness, bitterness in something

The strong, sharp taste found in foods such as dark chocolate or drinks such as black coffee.

• Sugar reduces the bitterness of coffee.
• The dark chocolate had a pleasant bitterness.
• I could still taste its bitterness after swallowing.

Opposites: sweetness

Common phrases: bitterness of coffee, slight bitterness, reduce the bitterness

The painful or upsetting quality of an experience, especially a loss or failure.

• She knew the bitterness of defeat.
• Their reunion eased the bitterness of years apart.
• He described the bitterness of losing his home.

Similar words: pain, harshness

Common phrases: bitterness of defeat, bitterness of failure, bitterness of loss