Rejoinder Meaning
/ɹɪˈd͡ʒɔɪndɚ/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounThe defendant's answer to the replication.
nounA response that answers another response.
Sentence Examples
"You're another" is a hallowed rejoinder to playground taunts.
This victory offered him a rejoinder to critics who claim he cannot win.
CEFR Practice Quiz
His clever ____ to the insult silenced everyone in the room immediately.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
His sharp ____ silenced the critic and drew appreciative laughter from the rest of the audience.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English rejoinder, rejonder, rejoynder, from Middle French rejoindre, with infinitive used as noun frequent in Law French. Doublet of rejoin.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
""76. ... P-R8(N) mate! Certainly not 76... P-R8(Q), though threatening mate on the move in seven different ways--as 77 Q-N5 mate would have been the painful rejoinder.""
— 1953 March, Irving Chernev, “Chernev's Chess Corner”, in Chess Review:
"I have passed perhaps more time than any other man of my age and country in visits and assemblies, where the polite persons of both sexes distinguish themselves; and could not without much grief observe how frequently both gentlemen and ladies are at a loss for questions, answers, replies, and rejoinders."
— 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page ii:
""I'm starting to-morrow. This is perhaps the last time we shall ever meet." I made an appropriate rejoinder, and he smiled wanly."
— 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 38, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
"The simplest rejoinder to all of Daenerys’ justifications is that this bloodshed could have been avoided. She was given a moment to choose, and she chose blind vengeance, the kind that eliminates any benevolence she hoped to bring to the seven kingdoms by burning it right out of the minds of anyone who saw her astride Drogon, mowing down men, women, and children with abandon."
— 2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 15 May 2019:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
His clever ____ to the insult silenced everyone in the room immediately.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
His sharp ____ silenced the critic and drew appreciative laughter from the rest of the audience.