How to Use ad hoc in a Sentence

ad hoc

1 of 2 adjective
  • We had to make some ad hoc changes to the plans.
  • We'll hire more staff on an ad hoc basis.
  • The mayor appointed an ad hoc committee to study the project.
  • But the ad hoc group of lenders is seen in the driver’s seat.
    — Evan Clark, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Both are ad hoc and incomplete.
    — Evan Johnson, IEEE Spectrum, 30 Apr. 2026
  • When attacks move at machine speed, ad hoc defenses cannot keep up.
    — Govind Rangasamy, Forbes.com, 27 Jan. 2026
  • There are no founding mothers in the camp’s ad hoc government.
    — Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 23 Dec. 2021
  • Sunak and Biden both seem to be running an ad hoc policy platter du jour.
    — Simon Constable, Forbes, 28 Jan. 2023
  • But finding the meteorites within those tracts has been an ad hoc affair.
    — Byscience News Staff, science.org, 26 Jan. 2023
  • That would be more like the ad hoc mobilization already under way.
    — Evan Gershkovich, WSJ, 20 Sep. 2022
  • But there were signs of frustration with the city's ad hoc, district-by-district approach.
    — Reuters, CNN, 21 Mar. 2022
  • Such efforts had been used in government in more ad hoc ways since the 1980s.
    — Sarah Scoles, New York Times, 17 May 2022
  • An ad hoc tribunal might claim the jurisdiction to try Putin, but there is still no way to haul him in.
    — Dahlia Scheindlin, The New Republic, 18 Apr. 2022
  • Six of the other investors in the ad hoc group each hold a single-digit stake in the retailer.
    — Evan Clark, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Cloud servers can upgrade your server capacity on both a long-term and ad hoc basis.
    — Andre Reitenbach, Forbes, 12 July 2022
  • As the Ayubis searched for a way out, an ad hoc group of people overseas was looking for ways to help her.
    — Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2021
  • Most startups work in an ad hoc way, in which features are developed based on intuition.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 29 June 2022
  • Some homes sit half-built, and many that are finished have ad hoc connections to electricity.
    — Neri Zilber, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Oct. 2022
  • So, for a healthy number of workers, that ad hoc workspace on the dining room table may no longer be sufficient.
    — Caron Golden, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Sep. 2022
  • This ad hoc aspect meant that women could have a prominence unusual in other visual arts.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 19 Aug. 2021
  • Now boys like Rafiullah and his 15-year-old brother serve as ad hoc repair crews for tips.
    — National Geographic, 13 Jan. 2023
  • The ad hoc formations are set to play an increasingly central role in the fighting.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 11 July 2022
  • These ad hoc systems of value and collective fictions have remained for her a constant muse.
    — New York Times, 12 Nov. 2021
  • The process of putting the ad hoc group's suggestions into practice won't be simple, though, Lein said.
    — Zekriah Chaudhry, Star Tribune, 24 June 2021
  • And from a patient standpoint, no one wants to believe such decisions are being made on an ad hoc basis in a back room.
    — oregonlive, 7 Jan. 2022
  • But the drug cocktail was somewhat ad hoc, Spottiswoode admits.
    — Bykatherine Kornei, science.org, 3 Feb. 2023
  • Fusion has thus far been largely ad hoc, lacking scale, integration, and a common goal.
    — Mark A. Cohen, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2022
  • Musk’s style of making ad hoc changes won't fly under the new European rulebook, experts said.
    — Kelvin Chan, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Dec. 2022
  • That might seem like a lag, but until now the data were only provided upon request and in ad hoc reports.
    — Blanca Begert, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2026
  • On his desk sits an ad hoc model rocket, jerry-rigged together from a paper clip and an old pencil eraser.
    — John Semley, WIRED, 16 Feb. 2023

ad hoc

2 of 2 adverb
  • If one found a grant, the news was shared ad hoc, often by text message.
    — Andrew Greif, NBC news, 23 Dec. 2025
  • Currently, vibe coding and being a vibe coder are an ad hoc and seat-of-the-pants foray.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
  • What started as some ad hoc freelancing turned into the next chapter of her career.
    — Ernestine Siu, CNBC, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Too often, these requests arrive ad hoc and without context.
    — Akhil Sivanandan, Sourcing Journal, 18 Mar. 2026
  • The payments are being sought on an ad hoc basis, according to Bloomberg.
    — Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 24 Mar. 2026
  • Wealthy Asians are adopting more formal and strategic models, rather than ad hoc giving.
    — Naina Subberwal Batra, Fortune, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Those initially seemed like ad hoc alliances, meant to patch over a period of disruption.
    — Lisa Jarvis, Mercury News, 21 Feb. 2026
  • Europe responds with ad hoc deals, emergency summits, and moral panics.
    — Jonathan Portes, Time, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Instead of ad hoc testing, agree on consistent ways to show care (a daily check-in, a goodnight text, a weekly date).
    — Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 14 Sep. 2025
  • People already tend to perceive AI as their ad hoc therapist.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Let’s assume that the percentage was estimated on an ad hoc basis.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2025
  • Member of multiple hiring and ad hoc committees for the school district.
    — Alec Johnson, jsonline.com, 18 Mar. 2026
  • But the ad hoc nature of the administration’s campaign is arguably doing more harm than good.
    — Bloomberg Opinion, Twin Cities, 2 Dec. 2025
  • But an ad hoc approach risks failing to achieve the scale and consistency necessary for long-term success.
    — Sadek Wahba, Foreign Affairs, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Instead, research has been conducted in ad hoc scenarios.
    — Frederick Dreier, Outside, 22 Jan. 2026
  • More than half of all meetings are ad hoc calls without a calendar invite, with 1 in 10 meetings scheduled at the last minute.
    — Jessica Guynn, USA Today, 30 Dec. 2025
  • The ad hoc will serve as a temporary committee tasked with preparing a performance evaluation for the full board.
    — Mona Darwish, Oc Register, 15 Apr. 2026
  • At that time, there was also a suggestion to form a community ad hoc committee to get more community feedback.
    — Alec Johnson, jsonline.com, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Yet such efforts have remained ad hoc, at the personal prerogative of sitting ambassadors.
    — Time, 9 Dec. 2025
  • Both conditions make an ad hoc aerial campaign without clear attainable objectives less likely.
    — John Scott Lewinski, The Washington Examiner, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Yet this doctrine is less a coherent grand strategy than a set of ad hoc deals, sometimes pro-market and sometimes interventionist.
    — Veronique De Rugy, Oc Register, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Mentorships, boards and ad hoc committees Smith also urged school officials to reach out if any students are seeking mentors who work for the city.
    — Madeline King, Kansas City Star, 14 Aug. 2025
  • These ministries are operated by a core team of nine full-time members, hundreds of volunteers from local high schools and colleges, and an ad hoc team of folks from many walks of life.
    — Tim Swift, The Conversation, 12 Feb. 2026
  • Researchers should move away from ad hoc disclosure that risks contaminating results and toward systems that earn trust both in the public sphere and the academic realm.
    — Ian Reardon, STAT, 2 Feb. 2026
  • This ad hoc ecosystem of technology is creating a vicious cycle where the very technology meant to solve problems ends up creating more.
    — Daniel Kendzior, Fortune, 31 Oct. 2025
  • An ad hoc alliance with the United States, which provided decisive air strikes, began during that heroic battle.
    — Paul Iddon, Forbes.com, 20 Jan. 2026
  • And beyond a few ad hoc fire safety laws that were scarcely enforced, cities’ building codes and water infrastructure naively lagged far behind the threat cities were creating.
    — Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Closing one or both middle schools are options being considered by an ad hoc committee in the Wauwatosa School District.
    — Alec Johnson, jsonline.com, 22 Oct. 2025
  • In addition, Smith pointed to the opportunity for students to become involved with city boards and ad hoc committees.
    — Madeline King, Kansas City Star, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Boards can no longer rely on ad hoc oversight; milestone inspections are now required every 30 years statewide, and even sooner for localities with tougher rules.
    — Maria Williams, USA Today, 25 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ad hoc.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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