How to Use bookish in a Sentence

bookish

adjective
  • Their teacher was a bookish fellow.
  • For bookish nerds, this game was like catnip.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 Nov. 2025
  • For bookish nerds, this game was like catnip.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Nov. 2025
  • Full of madcaps, mishaps and lots of bookish asides, this is an adorable romp.
    — Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping, 28 July 2022
  • Looking for a bookish gift for the readers in your life?
    — Clare Mulroy, USA Today, 28 Nov. 2025
  • The moody trend is all about deep colors and bookish accents.
    — Maria Sabella, Better Homes & Gardens, 7 Oct. 2025
  • Your teen can turn to these bookish gifts year round to get lost in their favorite novel.
    — Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, Better Homes & Gardens, 8 Oct. 2025
  • Shop below for our favorite styles to bring your best bookish look straight into fall.
    — Julia Gall, Marie Claire, 20 Aug. 2020
  • Bar Tab Taran Dugal stops by a bookish dive bar.
    — Zoë Hopkins, New Yorker, 29 May 2026
  • As kids, Jo is the bookish tomboy and Bethie the feminine good girl.
    — Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY, 8 June 2019
  • There are football dads and Lego dads, bookish dads and surfer dads, trans dads and gay dads, young dads and old dads.
    — Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 19 June 2026
  • There are authors and booths everywhere, and plenty of totes and bookish merch to get your hands on.
    — Yvonne Villarreal, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Lexi has always been the most conservative out of all the girls, and is more bookish than any of them.
    — Jamila Stewart, Vogue, 10 Jan. 2022
  • This was the hero piece that truly drove Hadid’s bookish outfit home.
    — Liana Satenstein, Vogue, 22 Sep. 2020
  • And in the cafe, a number of my bookish classmates, reading and chatting.
    — Esra Erol, Bon Appétit, 30 Mar. 2022
  • His glasses become him, in that bookish Clark Kent way.
    — Literary Hub, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Buchanan loves the sanguine talk, but his own idiom is quite often refined, even bookish.
    — Sam Tanenhaus, Esquire, 5 Apr. 2017
  • Trelawny, the younger son, is bookish and ironic, and the most frequent narrator.
    — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2022
  • For some, this too muchness, married to Wilder’s bookish mischief, will pall.
    — New York Times, 25 Apr. 2022
  • The idea for the show was to tell the story of a bookish teenage girl whose best friend was her 30-something mother.
    — Star Tribune, 22 Dec. 2020
  • The blond Billy wasn’t bookish like Tony, but had plenty of common sense.
    — Craig R. McCoy / Staff Writer, Philly.com, 12 July 2017
  • Ditto Camila Mendes, since the teenage Hermione looks kind of bookish and shy.
    — Emma Dibdin, Harper's BAZAAR, 18 Oct. 2018
  • Fey’s podcast team all share the same stylishly bookish appearance, with brown hair and glasses.
    — Nina Metz, chicagotribune.com, 31 Aug. 2021
  • Too bookish and restrained for mainstream pop, too neurotic for punk, and too bright and structured for post-punk.
    — Brady Gerber, Vulture, 29 Mar. 2021
  • David is white and middle class; his best friend, Marlon, is a bookish black kid who lives in public housing.
    — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 5 Mar. 2018
  • The once bookish nerd is now seemingly confident and has caught the attention of ladies at his school.
    — Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 31 Aug. 2025
  • Anyone who was a bookish child could probably tell a similar story to mine.
    — Adam Kirsch, The Atlantic, 2 Jan. 2026
  • Meanwhile, the bookish Adler did his best to stay out of the limelight and steer clear of the controversy.
    — Peter Manseau, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Sep. 2020
  • To anyone as bookish as Lang, orchids may have summoned a whiff of Proust and Wilde.
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
  • For the bookish Bäumer the finest thing that arose out of the war—and could never be belittled—was comradeship.
    — Tobias Grey, WSJ, 7 Dec. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bookish.' 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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