Definition
believing that people are motivated by self-interest; distrustful
In a sentence
“His cynical view of politics colors his writing.”
Similar words
- skeptical
- pessimistic
Related vocabulary
Why this word matters: cynical appears in academic reading at the 8th-grade level and is exactly the type of word that shows up on the CPS HSAT Reading section. Practice it in context with our spaced-repetition system at vocabulary.