How to Use referential in a Sentence

referential

adjective

• Only Kevin could make such a self-referential film and get away with it.
  — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Sep. 2022
• Wildly referential — a take on a great myth.
  — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 1 May 2026
• Its mysteries are self-aware and referential, and rarely hard to solve.
  — Caroline Framke, Variety, 26 Jan. 2022
• The book’s partly self-referential title is not meant to shock.
  — George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Aug. 2025
• But what about formal objects that were referential — to their own making and maybe even to the body?
  — Kate Guadagnino, New York Times, 25 Sep. 2023
• Yeah, [my comedy] is referential and goofy and kind of sniping in lines here and there.
  — Nick Vadala, Philly.com, 5 July 2017
• But while writers can play with self-referential in-jokes, the classic moments can't be topped.
  — Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 22 May 2018
• The mood is more referential and camp-adjacent than its franchise peers.
  — Alison Herman, Variety, 19 Sep. 2024
• Yes, this column has turned into something of a self-referential rant.
  — Laurence Kotlikoff, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2023
• This is also due, in part, to the brand being heavily self-referential.
  — Essence, 11 Aug. 2025
• And now there’s this weird self-referential layer to everything.
  — Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 22 Apr. 2026
• But cheeky, self-referential ads are kind of Ryder and Jacobs's thing.
  — Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 5 Aug. 2022
• A lot of modern rom-coms try to nod to those ’90s classics, but they get caught up in being too referential.
  — Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 22 Apr. 2026
• The film is so visually dense, so rapidly wordy, so referential to its own form, that often, details fly by in a blur.
  — Katie Walsh, Boston Herald, 30 Jan. 2025
• Paltrow is nothing if not self-referential.
  — Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 15 Dec. 2025
• But leave it to Zendaya to step out in a look at once referential, genre-minded, and entirely her own.
  — Calin Van Paris, Vogue, 18 Oct. 2021
• The choir heard in the background is mysterious rather than referential.
  — Armond White, National Review, 5 May 2021
• If anything, the studio has upped the self-referential gags and off-the-wall marketing gimmicks.
  — Ryan Faughnder, latimes.com, 17 May 2018
• Lookwell didn't get a pick up, but the absurdist-referential clique loved West and kept him employed.
  — Darren Franich, EW.com, 5 Jan. 2022
• The blue of the new work thus seems referential, and poignant, even if reference was coincidental.
  — Ephrat Livni, Quartz, 21 July 2019
• The characters feel more lived-in, and the dialogue, music and settings can be self-referential.
  — Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 13 Apr. 2018
• This year would have been an apt time to show up since Taylor does have her campy, self-referential, pseudo-serious moments.
  — Claire Dodson, Teen Vogue, 7 May 2019
• Over the last decade, hardly a week goes by without another addition to the self-referential canon, and the trend shows no sign of abating.
  — Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep. 2019
• The resulting moment was the reinvention of a referential look—and one primed for any holiday soirée.
  — Calin Van Paris, Vogue, 5 Dec. 2022
• But this isn't the first time Hathaway has engineered a self-referential fashion moment.
  — Leah Dolan, CNN, 15 Sep. 2022
• The title is an Iggy Pop rip, one of many blatantly referential turns of phrase on the album.
  — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 26 July 2017
• In a true testament to the referential nature of fashion, nostalgia is in the air and wooden shoe details are back.
  — Jamila Stewart, Essence, 27 Apr. 2021
• The referential names of the polishes are, of course, very intentional.
  — Kara Nesvig, Allure, 20 Sep. 2024
• The texts of many shooters who have been radicalized online are highly referential to each other.
  — Ben Goggin, NBC news, 12 Sep. 2025
• Heh, self-referential Netflix joke!
  — Emma Specter, Vogue, 16 Dec. 2025