Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of sententious This conclusion will shock anyone who knows Twain only through his writing, in which the author is wise and witty and, above all, devastating in his portrayal of frauds, cretins, and sententious bores. Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 9 May 2025 Audiences have no choice but to exist in the theatrical moment, without recourse to linear logic, sententious language or psychological epiphanies. Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2025 This is a bracing, even novel, perspective on a war whose film depictions so often traffic in sententious Greatest Generation platitudes. Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2024 Only the vivid image of the warped planks keeps this remark from being the type of sententious counsel that Polonius might have given his son. Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023 Without the wit inherent in an epigram, a sententious formulation becomes a mere adage, aphorism, apothegm, gnome, maxim, or saw. Bryan A. Garner, National Review, 15 Sep. 2022 Instead each event—from lethal accidents to vicious murders to Category 5 hurricanes—is immediately sorted into its prelabeled moral narrative file, each one full of similarly useful sententious parables. Gerard Baker, WSJ, 30 May 2022 Dialogue is rendered in the pseudo-profound pronouncements that have become the sententious lingua franca of the hero’s quest. Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2022 This melodramatic narrative fits right into American indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt’s domain, but Francis Lee is a less sententious proselytizer for gay life. Armond White, National Review, 13 Nov. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sententious
Adjective
  • This means clear, concise disclosures on landing pages, in privacy policies and during any direct interaction.
    William DeCourcy, Forbes.com, 14 May 2025
  • Conversely, Pope Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost, introduced himself to the public speaking Italian and Spanish, and greeted onlookers both in person and virtually with a concise speech about building bridges and fostering hope for a synodal church.
    Gabriele Regalbuto, FOXNews.com, 11 May 2025
Adjective
  • Based on specs and my brief time with the phone, this is the biggest drawback.
    Iyaz Akhtar, PC Magazine, 13 May 2025
  • In 2013, Erdogan worked with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on the brief peace process with the PKK.
    Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 12 May 2025
Adjective
  • Ukraine is investigating more than 150,000 possible war crimes committed by Russia, including the summary execution of prisoners and targeted aerial strikes against civilians.
    David Faris, Newsweek, 17 Mar. 2025
  • He is accused of acting as the de facto leader of the Davao Death Squad, a group that was responsible for summary executions and the murder or disappearance of more than 1,000 people in and around the city.
    Lisandro Claudio, The Conversation, 12 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • In the wrong hands, this could be too didactic and clumsy, but it’s deftly executed, and the integration of songs, drama, and dance is seamless—and often stunning.
    Daniel Dylan Wray, Pitchfork, 8 May 2025
  • Unfortunately, the question of how much worth is placed on an Israeli life versus a Palestinian one is answered mostly in words, and thus, in too direct (and perhaps too didactic) a fashion, when so much of the movie’s drama could have grounded it emotionally.
    Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • His current gig at the forestry nonprofit Canopy, which helps companies scale deforestation-free innovations, has been instructive, even though there isn’t much overlap between sustainable viscose and the bovine leather alternatives that Brave GentleMan touted.
    Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing Journal, 9 May 2025
  • The leadership team’s characterization of the business climate and the outlook, while subjective, can be instructive.
    Catherine Brock, Forbes.com, 5 May 2025
Adjective
  • Aster isn’t merely mocking them; his real point is that moralistic self-righteousness has become a kind of addiction in America.
    Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 May 2025
  • But the moralistic sneer didn’t take long to enter the postgame analysis.
    Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes, 23 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Sententious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sententious. Accessed 23 May. 2025.

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