How to Use condescending in a Sentence

condescending

adjective
  • His comments were offensive and condescending to us.
  • Which bear is the most condescending?
    — Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 2 May 2026
  • That song is fantastic to me because… pet names can be very condescending.
    — Jack Irvin, PEOPLE, 8 Oct. 2025
  • The post was taken down after users called it sexist and condescending.
    — Fox News, 28 Nov. 2019
  • Critics tore it apart for its tone-deafness and condescending spirit.
    — Yohana Desta, HWD, 21 May 2017
  • Trump was behind Sewell, looking on with a condescending smirk, as if to say, Get a load of this guy!
    — Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 20 Jan. 2025
  • To me, [that] idea is just as condescending and reductive as stereotyping them in a negative way.
    — Dan Snierson, EW.com, 22 Jan. 2020
  • And the motivational quotes on the walls are so condescending.
    — Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Pay no attention to your condescending friends and relatives unlucky enough to live in northern climes.
    — Julia O'Donoghue, NOLA.com, 18 Jan. 2018
  • But that’s a pretty mean and condescending way to give constructive criticism.
    — Gili Malinsky, CNBC, 21 Jan. 2025
  • Aubrey Plaza has made valiant efforts to backtrack on what might seem like the film's overly condescending view of social media users.
    — Julia Black, Esquire, 11 Aug. 2017
  • To not recognize that or, worse, to disrespect it, is both condescending and simple-minded.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 10 July 2020
  • Will her doctor give her a condescending lecture, or gently persuade her to cut her alcohol intake?
    — Julie Washington, cleveland.com, 31 Jan. 2018
  • And following his every move, make a condescending chuckle and/or whistle taps.
    — A.j. Jacobs, Esquire, 30 May 2006
  • His upbringing is often referred to in condescending terms in media stories.
    — Helin Jung, Cosmopolitan, 2 Feb. 2018
  • Rifkin is not part of the movie industry, but his parasitic relationship to film culture is pompous and condescending.
    — Armond White, National Review, 4 Feb. 2022
  • There’s a difference between sharing in another culture and making use of it in a condescending way.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 21 Sep. 2017
  • That doesn't mean taking on a condescending tone or addressing those with dementia in an undignified manner.
    — Episcopal Retirement Services, Cincinnati.com, 14 Feb. 2018
  • Discuss the reasoning behind such recaps, and what could seem condescending becomes a stopgap.
    — Gwen Moran, Fortune, 6 Apr. 2020
  • Yet thanks in part to the commission’s condescending response to journalists’ inquiries, the story has gathered pace.
    — The Economist, 15 Mar. 2018
  • This could feel like a condescending attempt to end up on the right side of history, but doesn’t—the characters are never reduced to props in a you-go-girl power ballad.
    — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 13 June 2019
  • Critics say the segment ended up stereotyping Africans in a condescending manner.
    — Adam Taylor, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2018
  • Its battery is dead, but that doesn’t stop him from being very condescending to Gabbie (who is paying him $2,000 for his time).
    — Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 25 July 2023
  • Even those conservative professors who are warm toward the Tea Party are warm with a condescending edge.
    — Emma Green, The Atlantic, 30 Apr. 2016
  • So often when fashion brands talk about the people who make their clothes, the tone is vaguely condescending and a chance for brands to pat themselves on the back, in part because wages are often a talking point.
    — Steve Dool, GQ, 27 Apr. 2018
  • What this condescending message chiefly does is deny to the faith a sense of inner dynamism and enterprise—exactly what is needed in finding a modern future.
    — Bartle Bull, WSJ, 26 Aug. 2018
  • The duke lets Gladys be steamrolled by his condescending and controlling sister, Lady Sarah, who drives Gladys to tears again and again.
    — Sam Reed, Glamour, 11 Aug. 2025
  • Now, being 17 myself, the condescending conclusion that teenagers don’t read this kind of intriguing, nuanced journalism stings on its own.
    — Felix Kalvesmaki, Teen Vogue, 29 June 2017
  • Dismissing these concerns as mere xenophobia is both condescending and factually wrong.
    — Letters To The Editor, Oc Register, 14 Sep. 2025
  • Beyond that, though, my father’s motive in taking the exam cold was surely to prove how useless, how far beneath him, was Bob’s condescending notion of tutelage.
    — Gregory Pardlo, The New Yorker, 12 Feb. 2017

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