I’d like to know the difference between “a bitter smile”," a wry smile", and "a bittersweet smile"in nuance.
I’m glad if anyone could give me the example sentences for each.
I shall just give brief explanations for each expression.
A bitter smile shows disappointment, negative expectations.
A wry smile expresses reluctant, false acceptance of something we are not pleased with, but to which we have to agree. Some wry smiles have humour in them, others are negative masks we wear.
A bittersweet smile shows resignation, sadness and again reluctant acceptance.
Hope this helps! With a :), a simple, plain 
2 Likes
In my opinion ‘a bitter smile’ and ‘a wry smile’ are similar, mayber the first one is closer to ‘a sardonic smile’ and the second one - to ‘a forced smile’. 'A bittersweet smile is such a smile that is arousing pleasure tringed with some sadness or pain. It’s like in the instance: “bittersweet memories of my far childhood”
1 Like
A bitter smile is what I give to myself when I think about how good this forum was before it got totally f&$§ed up at the last update.
Um…your words gave me a ‘genuine’ smile:)
Thank you all for your kindness. Your explanations were easy to understand.