In “The Dev­il’s Dic­tio­nary,” Ambrose Bierce cyn­i­cal­ly dis­sects soci­etal norms, behav­iors, and beliefs through satir­i­cal def­i­n­i­tions of com­mon words and con­cepts. The pas­sage dives into the absur­di­ty of col­lec­tive wis­dom, sug­gest­ing a mul­ti­tude’s wis­dom is only as strong as its most fool­ish mem­ber unless it fol­lows its wis­est one, chal­leng­ing the idea that strength always comes in num­bers.

“Mum­my” illus­trates the west­ern civ­i­liza­tion’s para­dox­i­cal respect and exploita­tion of ancient Egypt­ian mum­mies, cri­tiquing the des­e­cra­tion of the dead for med­i­c­i­nal or artis­tic pur­pos­es. Bierce’s dark humor ques­tions the eth­i­cal bound­aries of using the deceased for the liv­ing’s ben­e­fit.

“Mus­tang” and “Myr­mi­don” offer a brief com­men­tary on soci­etal hier­ar­chies and blind fol­low­er­ship, where­as “Mythol­o­gy” play­ful­ly address­es the fab­ri­ca­tion of cul­tur­al nar­ra­tives over time, dis­tin­guish­ing ear­ly beliefs from lat­er inven­tions.

Nec­tar por­trays the loss of ancient recipes to time, with a humor­ous com­par­i­son to Ken­tuck­ians’ attempts at recre­at­ing divine bev­er­ages, high­light­ing human efforts to mim­ic or under­stand the divine.

The def­i­n­i­tions of “Negro” and “Neigh­bor” pro­vide a cyn­i­cal look at Amer­i­can pol­i­tics and social oblig­a­tions, reveal­ing under­ly­ing prej­u­dices and the com­plex­i­ties of soci­etal rela­tion­ships. “Nepo­tism” fur­ther cri­tiques polit­i­cal cor­rup­tion, mock­ing the prac­tice of favoritism with­in gov­er­nance.

“New­ton­ian” humor­ous­ly men­tions the begin­nings of physics with­out under­stand­ing grav­i­ty, por­tray­ing sci­en­tif­ic dis­cov­ery as an ongo­ing quest for knowl­edge.

“Nihilist,” “Nir­vana,” and “Noble­man” delve into cul­tur­al and philo­soph­i­cal criticisms—ranging from Russ­ian exis­ten­tial denial, Bud­dhist enlight­en­ment, to the Amer­i­can long­ing for aristocracy—showing Bierce’s wide range of tar­gets for satire.

“Noise” and “Nom­i­nate” com­ment on civ­i­liza­tion’s byprod­ucts and the polit­i­cal process, equat­ing soci­etal advance­ment with nui­sance and polit­i­cal can­di­da­cy with pub­lic scruti­ny and defama­tion.

End­ing with “Non­sense” and “Nose,” Bierce embraces the cri­tique of his work as non­sen­si­cal while humor­ous­ly sug­gest­ing one’s propen­si­ty to med­dle in oth­ers’ busi­ness, encap­su­lat­ing his over­ar­ch­ing theme of human fol­ly and the intri­cate absur­di­ty of soci­etal con­structs. Through sharp wit and unfor­giv­ing analy­sis, Bierce expos­es the pecu­liar­i­ties of human behav­ior and soci­etal norms, leav­ing a last­ing impres­sion of our com­plex inter­ac­tions and beliefs.