How to Use chiefly in a Sentence

chiefly

1 of 2 adverb
  • Our tester also had a lot of chrome, chiefly in the front fascia.
    — Sean Evans, Robb Report, 24 Mar. 2026
  • For his part the man likes chiefly the sound of them, in Pearl’s rag of a voice.
    — Lawrence Jackson, Harper's Magazine, 10 July 2023
  • Bologna, chiefly through Rowe, kept Villa on their heels.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Amidst the frenzy of it all, Bradley has his vision locked chiefly on one thing.
    — Killian Baarlaer, The Courier-Journal, 12 Aug. 2025
  • This has been going on for years, emanating chiefly from the far right.
    — Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 20 May 2026
  • The next chapters in life deal chiefly with giving and receiving.
    — Roxana Popescu, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 May 2023
  • Tea was consumed chiefly in private; Mother poured out.
    — Jane Kamensky, The Atlantic, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Media rights — chiefly, television contracts — take up a big share of the pie.
    — Zach Osterman, The Indianapolis Star, 15 Dec. 2022
  • Martin, whose first language is Swedish, is chiefly concerned with melody.
    — Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2025
  • This would be chiefly the inflicting of pain, toilets, and schadenfreude.
    — Michael Hofmann, The New York Review of Books, 28 Sep. 2023
  • This unusual chemical process is confined chiefly around the comet's head, not its tail.
    — Joe Rao, Space.com, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Those who read chiefly for pleasure are more comfortable letting details blur.
    — Literary Hub, 2 Apr. 2026
  • This list is intended chiefly to get the gears of your own moviegoing memories turning.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 4 Feb. 2026
  • The school is hustling to meet future demand, chiefly through the addition of high-rise dorms and apartments.
    — Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Apr. 2023
  • Democrats instead face other questions — chiefly, how far to go legislatively and when to act.
    — Seth Klamann, The Mercury News, 4 Feb. 2024
  • To date, their war chest weighs in at more than $20 million, raised chiefly from independent oil and gas drillers.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 15 Dec. 2022
  • Maybe that’s why Pascal now seems chiefly concerned with making those around him feel comfortable.
    — WIRED, 9 Jan. 2023
  • For a generation of fans, Chance is chiefly known as a wife guy who made a whole album about being a wife guy.
    — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2025
  • European unification was meant, chiefly, to put all that behind them.
    — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2026
  • But the accord already faces threats, chiefly from Lebanon, with the fighting there leading to the delay in the start of talks.
    — Erin Cunningham, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2026
  • This is chiefly due to its GLP-1 portfolio and pipeline.
    — Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Bloom didn’t rule out adding rental players, but the Sox are chiefly interested in longer-term additions.
    — Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 26 July 2023
  • The color is of great variety and beauty and is chiefly distinguished by the use of soft tones and startling new contrasts.
    — Thr Staff, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2022
  • Larson has clashed chiefly with Bronin — rather than his other two opponents — during the campaign.
    — Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 28 June 2026
  • The performance is forceful enough for this Bug to operate chiefly as a character study.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 9 Jan. 2026
  • Carbon dioxide, released from the burning of gas, oil and coal, is chiefly responsible for warming.
    — Seth Borenstein, Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2026
  • The choice to date someone with similar values seems chiefly about feeling like a major part of your identity is being shared.
    — Ali Francis, Bon Appétit, 25 July 2023
  • Singer, songwriter and social activist Bono, narrates his own memoir, a book that will appeal chiefly to his fans.
    — Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 14 Dec. 2022
  • High Blood Pressure Salt is chiefly made up of the minerals sodium and chloride.
    — Nancy Lebrun, Verywell Health, 19 Aug. 2025
  • They can be summoned via the third-party app Honk, which chiefly is used by tow truck operators to find stranded customers.
    — Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2026

chiefly

2 of 2 adjective
  • That includes chiefly masks of various types and hand-washing.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 24 Feb. 2023
  • The building materials, chiefly wood, oolite limestone and concrete with no steel supports, were crumbling.
    — Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 24 Jan. 2024
  • Staff vacancies are chiefly to blame for the declining number of inspections, officials for the labor department say.
    — Ames Alexander, Charlotte Observer, 14 May 2024
  • After the British arrived, Tu, a scion of a chiefly family on Tahiti, dealt cleverly with the newcomers.
    — Jeff Chu, Travel + Leisure, 30 Jan. 2022
  • Astilbe is a noun meaning any of a genus of chiefly Asian perennial plants of the saxifrage family that have simple or usually compound leaves and are widely cultivated for their panicles of usually white, pink or red flowers.
    — City News Service, Daily News, 26 May 2026

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