nonassertive

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 nonassertive People who knew Zhang described him to police as a nonassertive man who avoided conflict and typically acquiesced to his wife. Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2021 Those who saw an assertive ad chose to allocate $7 of the gift card to the brand on average, compared with $14 for those who saw a nonassertive ad. Alina Dizik, WSJ, 16 May 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nonassertive
Adjective
  • Simultaneously, a mass of low-pressure air is developing over the Great Lakes.
    Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2025
  • The approaching chill is part of a low-pressure system that’s going to be moving across the eastern United States.
    Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 5 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • The former is quietly involving: unhurried, unemphatic, observant.
    Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 4 Nov. 2021
  • The beat is steady and usually unemphatic; the song circles through three chords again and again.
    Jon Pareles, New York Times, 6 July 2018
Adjective
  • Accommodating, which is unassertive and cooperative, prioritizes the needs and preferences of others over one’s own in order to maintain harmony.
    Ellen Choi, Forbes, 10 Mar. 2025
  • Shy and unassertive, she’s often been overlooked by others and kept to herself.
    Yasmine AlSayyad, The New Yorker, 9 Jan. 2023
Adjective
  • The blast was set off on a concrete surface to replicate an urban environment, with air temperatures around 25 degrees Celsius, typical of mild weather conditions.
    Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 9 Nov. 2025
  • In fact, David Landsberg, the President & CEO at Goodwill Industries of South Florida, says that most decorative home goods made of glass, metal, or ceramic can easily be cleaned with a simple combination of mild dish soap and warm water.
    Ashlyn Needham, Southern Living, 8 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • After a sluggish start, UM used a dominant finish to the first half to take a lead and carried that momentum over en route to a 38-10 win over the Syracuse Orange on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.
    Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 8 Nov. 2025
  • The country has been enduring sluggish consumer spending, alongside a prolonged downturn in the property sector.
    Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 7 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • With stunning celerity, possibility becomes probability and then certainty, as readers reject the quiet, circuitous, and unglamorous narratives of prudential compromise, ambiguous diplomacy, or incremental progress.
    Elizabeth D. Samet, Foreign Affairs, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Ibsen’s choice to use Hedda’s maiden name for the play speaks to her resistance to the strong presence of men in her life; DaCosta’s choice to remove the surname entirely speaks to a rejection of patriarchal identity, replaced with an ambiguous void that Hedda herself doesn’t know how to fill.
    Rory Doherty, Time, 29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Signs to treat fevers include being unusually sleepy, cranky and refusing food and drinks.
    Erika Edwards, NBC news, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Trancoso, Bahia The opening of Uxua Casa Hotel & Spa in 2009 transformed the sleepy fishing village of Trancoso into a boho-chic hot spot.
    Maya Kachroo-Levine, Travel + Leisure, 5 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora Gomez earned an Emmy nomination for her role as Mabel, a guarded and sarcastic millennial who strikes up an unexpected friendship with Charles and Oliver.
    Olivia Singh, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Our spirits remain guarded, but high, for this one; the Venice Film Festival crowd seemed to eat it up.
    Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 3 Sep. 2024

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Cite this Entry

“Nonassertive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nonassertive. Accessed 15 Nov. 2025.

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