How to Use contemptible in a Sentence

contemptible

adjective
  • I've never met a more selfish, contemptible person.
  • Either way, Rose has done contemptible things time cannot erase.
    — Dave Clark, Cincinnati.com, 3 Aug. 2017
  • Anonymous hater trolls are contemptible but are not unique to our movement.
    — New York Times, 13 Jan. 2017
  • Levin’s attempt to blur the lines between her case and more damning ones is contemptible — or worse.
    — Isaac Schorr, National Review, 30 Dec. 2020
  • Why would an eternal spirit take on the contemptible condition of flesh?
    — James Matthew Wilson, WSJ, 24 Dec. 2020
  • The students find the whole idea of the writer as a gifted truth-teller — as a kind of god — contemptible.
    — Lori Soderlind, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2018
  • Mom would find the idea of using food for reasons other than nourishment contemptible.
    — Irv Erdoscolumnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Feb. 2023
  • This contemptible attack wasn’t an assault only on him, but on the West and all freethinkers.
    — Reza Pahlavi, WSJ, 18 Aug. 2022
  • Whatever Mueller does, half of the country will call him courageous and half will call him contemptible.
    — Peter Baker, New York Times, 8 June 2017
  • More contemptible than pitiful, his only concern when his wife gets murdered is covering his tracks.
    — Michael Nordine, Variety, 15 June 2023
  • When unleashed on Jews, is as vile and contemptible as the hatred of blacks and other minorities.
    — Dahleen Glanton, chicagotribune.com, 28 Aug. 2017
  • DeSantis hasn’t yet paid the price for his contemptible behavior.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2024
  • Ebenezer Scrooge has lived a contemptible life, but his selfishness hides that reality from him.
    — Peter J. Travers, National Review, 30 Dec. 2023
  • The same hallowed grounds where over 1 million people were murdered is still the site of despicable and contemptible crimes.
    — Alan Goch, sun-sentinel.com, 14 Oct. 2021
  • Yes all his pious liberal Hollywood enablers who said nothing for decades are contemptible.
    — Frank Rich, Daily Intelligencer, 11 Oct. 2017
  • Most people in the anglosphere don’t follow this region, and those who do get their opinions from a small number of people with a contemptible worldview.
    — Robert Schmad, The Washington Examiner, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Living with Edith was unequivocally good, even if the notion of exchanging cash for a kid sounds contemptible.
    — Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 19 Sep. 2023
  • Your death was preventable, unjust, tragic, and contemptible; utterly contemptible.
    — Arkansas Online, 27 Jan. 2026
  • As usual, Trump’s Twitter storm was beyond contemptible for all the obvious reasons.
    — William D. Cohan, vanityfair.com, 2 Oct. 2017
  • One person talks about an alphabet book filled with contemptible Jewish caricatures.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2021
  • But to Arbus, who began as a fashion photographer, the various forms our denial takes were not contemptible.
    — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 26 Sep. 2022
  • The mayor is diverting public funds for a cathedral while proffering a large dowry to marry his 11-year-old daughter to a baron’s contemptible son.
    — J. Hoberman, New York Times, 23 June 2017
  • People took to social media to denounce it and him as misogynistic, condescending and contemptible.
    — Washington Post, 28 Dec. 2020
  • Alwyn does some of his best work, making Harry contemptible without veering into caricature.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Sep. 2024
  • As notable as the president’s more contemptible qualities, but less discussed, is the fact that, among the public, some are apparently just now taking notice.
    — Becket Adams, National Review, 16 July 2023
  • Navigating contemptible bosses and the petty indignities that have always been inflicted on the ranks of working stiffs has never been easy.
    — Lindsay Ellis and Angela Yang, WSJ, 12 Aug. 2022
  • These days, Peters certainly isn’t the only one exhibiting all these contemptible, autocratic traits.
    — Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2020
  • Making a movie that's based on some of the most intimate, vulnerable and contemptible moments of your life is an ambitious undertaking — even more so if its cast includes your own dog.
    — Ashley Lee, latimes.com, 25 June 2018
  • Oberlin College has an admirable liberal past and a contemptible progressive present that will devalue its degrees far into the future.
    — George Will, Twin Cities, 20 June 2019
  • The annual flu shots that are free to those with health insurance are not immune from the convoluted and contemptible price-gouging that plague the US healthcare system.
    — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 19 Nov. 2019

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