instills

verb

present tense third-person singular of instill
as in plants
to set permanently in the consciousness or mind-set a charismatic leader who instilled in his followers a passionate commitment to the cause

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of instills College Football instills a lot of loyalty and support in people for their alma mater through the thick and thin of the program’s success. — Outkick, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026 Nvidia's chips made GPT-6 Astra possible, while the model's success instills confidence in OpenAI's ability to make good on its custom silicon partnership with Broadcom. — Kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 8 Sep. 2026 Seeing the snow leopard changed the course of my life, and every new snow leopard sighting reminds me to go in search of the unknown, instills me with a sense of meaning and purpose. — Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2026 Students converge on Morningside Heights because the university distills — and instills — the ideals of an open, democratic, pluralistic nation. — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 19 Aug. 2026 Bush Hager said she’s worked hard throughout her life and instills that drive in her three children, including 13-year-old Mila, who had a summer job. — Leigh Blickley, Entertainment Weekly, 13 Aug. 2026 The heart-pounding, Reznoresque theme instills a sense of urgency in the viewer to match that of the kitchen crew. — Alison Herman, Variety, 25 June 2026 After all, the liberal arts are, at their root, about giving people a well-rounded education that deeply instills critical thinking, communication, adaptability, and analytical skills. — Jamie Merisotis, Forbes.com, 11 June 2026 Davis explains that the knowledge of the show's impact coupled with the legacy of those who paved the way for them, like James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, instills a sense of pride in the cast. — Kayla Grant, PEOPLE, 9 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for instills
  1. plants
  2. breeds
  3. inculcates
  4. embeds
  5. roots
Verb
  • Moving plants indoors during cold snaps can keep mums in flower longer.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 23 Sep. 2026
  • The repeal’s effect on power companies’ present-day decisions – which plants to continue to operate, what to build and with what pollution controls built in – affects the electricity prices consumers pay now and over the coming decades.
    — Akshaya Jha, The Conversation, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of plants
Verb
  • Its rural nature — isolated from the rest of the country and with many of its communities accessible only by air or water — breeds a self-reliance.
    — Becky Bohrer, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2026
  • The company granted Hayes free food for life at any location, though familiarity, to misquote an old adage, breeds boredom.
    — Tom Roland, Billboard, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of breeds
Verb
  • City finished 17 points behind Chelsea when Chelsea won their most recent title, and maybe after a while that inculcates a sense of shakiness, or not-quite-worthiness.
    — Katie Whyatt, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2026
  • Because there’s something about the college environment that really inculcates hierarchy.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 May 2026
Definition of inculcates
Verb
  • The brand embeds itself in the treatment room, too, not just on the retail shelf.
    — Bilin Lin, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2026
  • By running a masternode, Clear Street embeds itself directly into the core consensus layer, taking on the heavy lifting of verifying transactions and steering network governance.
    — Ethan M. Stone, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of embeds
Verb
  • However, her performance soon takes on a more grounded, childlike cadence, which roots the supposedly amnesiac Margot a little too firmly within the literal, especially for a tale whose poetry lies in its uncanniness.
    — Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Instead, Nowell roots the band’s sound in the mid-’90s and keeps his vocal mannerisms as close to Bradley’s as possible.
    — Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 15 June 2026
Definition of roots

Browse Nearby Words

instilling
instills
instinct
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Cite this Entry

“Instills.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/instills. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.

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