How to Use capricious in a Sentence

capricious

adjective
  • The court ruled that the punishment was arbitrary and capricious.
  • Kepler is aware of how capricious this game is.
    — Matt Gelb, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2025
  • Speech tends to drift out of her, as airy and capricious as dandelion fluff.
    — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2024
  • Game to game, Leverkusen can be capricious.
    — Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2025
  • Their capricious nature will make for a nerve-wracking eclipse day.
    — USA TODAY, 26 Mar. 2024
  • Then again, the president is capricious and that could change.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Wang wanted to find the most capricious radio signals in the sky.
    — Max G. Levy, Wired, 24 Feb. 2021
  • Investors may be capricious, but the market's math is a stubborn thing.
    — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 13 Oct. 2020
  • To pick against my childhood team might be seen as the best way to pull one over on the capricious gods of baseball.
    — The New York Times, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2016
  • The court ruled that the increase was arbitrary and capricious.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2019
  • The capricious enforcement of those rules born out of the robber baron days was one way to put the squeeze on.
    — Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 3 Sep. 2025
  • No doubt about it, the spring weather for the past few years has been, to put it politely, capricious.
    — Roxie Hammill, kansascity.com, 29 Apr. 2017
  • That all should add even more unpredictability to a league that can be quite capricious.
    — Jim Reineking, USA TODAY, 25 Feb. 2023
  • Similar scenes played out all over the metro area, a reminder of the capricious nature of storms.
    — Bryn Stole, NOLA.com, 29 Oct. 2020
  • First, few outdoor sports are as capricious in terms of conditions as surfing.
    — Outside Online, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Orange’s balance between light and dark has always been a capricious one.
    — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 25 July 2019
  • Because that would be a fairy-tale ending, and this is Gilead, brutal and capricious.
    — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 6 May 2025
  • Teach, Donny’s capricious and foul-mouthed friend, barges into the shop mid-lecture.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Apr. 2022
  • This means Blackout can feel capricious and jarring in a way that other battle royale games don't.
    — Julie Muncy, Ars Technica, 19 Oct. 2018
  • All of which makes the decision to ban Parler seem somewhat capricious.
    — Gilad Edelman, Wired, 13 Jan. 2021
  • The motions inside clouds are turbulent, with globs and eddies of gas swirling around like capricious fairies.
    — Nia Imara, Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2024
  • The motions inside clouds are turbulent, with globs and eddies of gas swirling around like capricious fairies.
    — Nia Imara, Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2024
  • Shou, in his feature debut, does a fine job evoking the capricious moods of a teenager battling against his own mind.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 6 June 2025
  • Lottie works best as an enigma, a cipher for the beliefs and the often capricious actions of the group.
    — Erin Qualey, Vulture, 14 Mar. 2025
  • The states are alleging that this fails to make the policy any less arbitrary or capricious.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 10 Feb. 2025
  • No warrant, no charges, just capricious face-breaking violence.
    — Literary Hub, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Sabalenka and Shnaider had to navigate its more capricious cousin.
    — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 3 June 2026
  • In a city already numb to Trump’s capricious moves, this one still left everyone doing a double-take.
    — Philip Elliott, Time, 3 Feb. 2026
  • One that wouldn’t rely on the capricious power supply in his Highlandtown home.
    — Christine Condon, baltimoresun.com, 1 Sep. 2020
  • Often the wheel, spun by the blind and capricious goddess of fortune, features a royal figure trying to cling to it.
    — Jason Zweig, WSJ, 4 Sep. 2020

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