as in convincing
the act of reasoning or pleading with someone to accept a belief or course of action a defense lawyer uses not only legal arguments but also moral suasion to appeal to a jury's sense of right and wrong

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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 suasion Finally, the original Concert vision embraced formal deliberation and moral suasion as the key mechanism of collaborative foreign policy. Stacie E. Goddard, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025 The 60th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s famous March 15, 1965, voting rights speech is an important reminder of the power of moral suasion when applied in support of basic democratic principles. Michael Peregrine, Chicago Tribune, 14 Mar. 2025 To that end, an objection by an athlete who is a class member and who stands to lose out from the settlement’s approval will likely have suasion. Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 7 Feb. 2025 Some will argue that self-expression is the goal, others moral suasion; some will prefer soft power to storming the barricades and some the reverse. Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2024 See All Example Sentences for suasion
Recent Examples of Synonyms for suasion
Noun
  • Her education was a synthesis of Classical and Romantic, with the Scottish grounding in logic, reason and intellectual persuasion given a fillip by the improvisations of Miss Christina Kay.
    Frances Wilson September 23, Literary Hub, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Brooks’s core message is that the most successful people are not the most forceful, but the most effective communicators who prioritize connection over persuasion.
    Preston Fore, Fortune, 22 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • During a two-point conversion play, Jennings caught the ball in the endzone, but was smashed between two Jaguars defenders.
    James Brizuela, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Sep. 2025
  • Their power play, with him as a main component, was below-average in both conversion rate and chance generation.
    The Athletic NHL, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • But while many Hollywood productions have gone overseas in search of lucrative inducements, there are still plenty of creative — and non-economic — reasons a film would shoot outside the United States.
    Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The material contained on this site is intended to inform, entertain and educate the reader and in no way represents an inducement to gamble legally or illegally or any sort of professional advice.
    Jacob Camenker, USA Today, 28 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Suasion.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/suasion. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.

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