Words / S / General

squib

noun/skwɪb/

C2CEFR level
82/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

A short, sharp piece of satirical writing or speech.

He dashed off a witty squib about the council's parking fiasco for the local paper.

Similar: lampoon, skit, gibe

Origin: Of uncertain origin, originally denoting a small firework.

Topic: satire in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: satire