How to Use diffidence in a Sentence

diffidence

noun

• Those who disengage will be guilty only of sharing their diffidence about the party’s future.
  — Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 11 Jan. 2021
• But the government’s blatant bias during the campaign was at odds with this apparent diffidence.
  — The Economist, 18 Oct. 2017
• Truthful to Julie's pre-feminist heart, Mueller adopts a tender diffidence.
  — Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 17 May 2018
• But Ross’s own diffidence and her belief in collaboration also kept her work in the shadows.
  — Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian, 29 Mar. 2017
• By the time the final act rolls around, Lamb approaches the idea that there’s a price that must be paid with a shrugging diffidence rather than impending doom.
  — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2021
• Between the sticks - Bayern seem reluctant to retire Neuer but this diffidence is helping no one.
  — Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, The Athletic, 7 Jan. 2025
• By the time the final act rolls around, ‘Lamb’ approaches the idea that there’s a price that must be paid with a shrugging diffidence rather than impending doom.
  — Mark Olsen Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2021
• But Cropper’s diffidence about his abilities was the perfect mindset for a rhythm guitarist, whose job is to serve the song and the band rather than himself.
  — David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 5 Dec. 2025
• King-Lu draws Cookie out of his melancholy diffidence, while Cookie calms some of his friend’s restlessness.
  — New York Times, 3 Mar. 2020
• The people who’ve worked with her, however, describe an impressive resolve beneath the diffidence.
  — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
• Their men’s team collapsed in a heap in the World Cup two years ago and continues to play with a listlessness and diffidence in these Olympics.
  — Michael Powell, New York Times, 10 Aug. 2016
• Thomas’s gentle diffidence, and his director’s fiercely rigorous style, leave his motives denser than unproved sourdough.
  — Ofir Raul Graizer, New York Times, 28 June 2018
• During public engagements, Sturgeon moves with a certain diffidence, letting others go through doors first.
  — Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 3 May 2021
• One video shows the two cats at their first meeting exhibiting mutual curiosity and typical feline diffidence.
  — Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2023
• Holga’s comments begin to sound one-note, and patience wears thin with Simon’s diffidence and Doric’s indifference.
  — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Mar. 2023
• Epstein and Friedman offer many such anecdotal moments but, like their diffidence regarding the origins of the band’s name, shy away from pursuing them in depth.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 12 Sep. 2019
• And the former President's quasi-endorsement of Abrams reveals the diffidence among party leaders about how to proceed.
  — Michael Warren, CNN, 28 Sep. 2021
• His touch is humane, restrained sometimes to the point of diffidence, but genuinely interested in locating small and large truths within broad comic concepts.
  — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 29 July 2019
• One lesson of the book is that people reared in places saturated with complicated racial meanings ought to treat their convictions about race with diffidence and perhaps with suspicion.
  — Paul C. Taylor, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2022
• Trapped by governmental controls and near-negligible growth rates, there was a diffidence that lasted for decades since Independence.
  — S. Gopikrishna Warrier, Quartz India, 20 Jan. 2020
• And that eye could see past Dorothy’s drab uniform and Cindy Brady pigtails, her tall girl’s diffidence and her sweet girl’s shyness, to the bombshell smoldering underneath.
  — Lili Anolik, Vanity Fair, 12 Jan. 2026
• His diffidence blends well with his shambling characterization and Ford’s unhurried tempo.
  — J. Hoberman, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2018
• One reason for the diffidence may be that Shao-Horn already has another project for building larger electrodes to be used in EV applications.
  — IEEE Spectrum, 22 June 2010
• Only resolution and resourcefulness, not diffidence and jokes, will secure victory.
  — Kyle Smith, National Review, 19 July 2019
• Scott was completing a yearlong master’s program in mathematics, and Noone, a doctoral candidate five years his senior, was charmed by the contrast between his good looks and his diffidence.
  — Eren Orbey, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
• Clattering and slow-moving, the 2021 Brood X swarmageddon taunts cats and dogs, who seem incapable of affecting diffidence.
  — New York Times, 14 June 2021
• Despite her diffidence about feminist smugness, there’s no shortage of reflexive feminist mockery of men, though also a wonderful passage about the special female thrill in locating the tender heart of the brute.
  — Laura Kipnis, The New Republic, 5 May 2023
• But in an administration where diffidence can be as contemptible as disloyalty, Tillerson’s retiring leadership style threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  — vanityfair.com, 22 Sep. 2017
• Norman Mailer wrote with an unstable mixture of self-indulgence and self-awareness, bravado and diffidence, glibness and bracing honesty, macho posturing and an almost sheepish gentleness.
  — Andrew Delbanco, The New York Review of Books, 28 Mar. 2024
• Celik seems attuned to such questions as a valid (if not necessarily revelatory) core for a play to circle around, but Cramer’s writing often feels caught between an exploration of comic diffidence and simply an expression of it.
  — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 30 Mar. 2026