pung-, punc-, punct-, point

A former method of treating aneurysm by inserting wire threads, hair, or the like to promote coagulation.

A form of acupuncture using low frequency electrically stimulated needles to produce analgesia and anaesthesia and to treat disease; electroacupuncture.

1. A surgical puncture of a hernia.
2. Al surgical procedure in which a hole is made in a hernia sac.

1. Therapeutic puncture with hot needles.
2. Puncture with a white-hot styliform cautery.

1. To suggest that something cannot be trusted, relied on, or respected.
2. To attack as false, questionable, or wrong.

1. Physically painful: “Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward”.
2. Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings: "poignant anxiety".
3. Profoundly moving; touching: "a poignant memory".
4. Piercing; incisive: "poignant criticism".
5. Neat, skillful, and to the point: "poignant illustrations supplementing the text".
6. Astute and pertinent; relevant: "poignant suggestions".
7. Agreeably intense or stimulating: "poignant delight".
8. Archaic: Sharp or sour to the taste; piquant. Sharp or pungent to the smell.

From Latin pungere, "stick, pierce". The sense of poignant, "sharp, piercing" was adopted into French through Anglo-French as poindre. It went into Middle English as poynaunt, then during the 1700s the French spelling was restored and poignant became the standard form of the word.

1. A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words; the word or phrase used in this way.
2. The humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning.

A point, something located in a point (small bacterial cultures); a dot.