How to Use courtesan in a Sentence

courtesan

noun
  • In this Japan, the courtesans killed one another in their sleep.
    — Ryu Spaeth, Vulture, 23 Apr. 2024
  • In that scene, a courtesan challenges an emperor in court by declaring her love for a prince.
    — New York Times, 5 Feb. 2022
  • The show talks about the love lives and power tussles of the courtesans of Lahore.
    — Sweta Kaushal, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2025
  • That is some kind of ultimate 21st-century courtesan thing to have said.
    — Bruce Sterling, WIRED, 19 Feb. 2008
  • The film traces the journey of a courtesan and poet in Lucknow, India.
    — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 17 Apr. 2026
  • He was raised by his mother, a courtesan who amassed a fortune before retiring from her sensual labors.
    — Michael Lapointe, The New Yorker, 15 Nov. 2022
  • Elite patronage had given rise to quarters of courtesans, and an ecosystem of music, dance and fashion grew around them.
    — Mujib Mashal Atul Loke, New York Times, 1 May 2024
  • Jetson said she and two other courtesans were fired after the brothel learned about the unionization effort.
    — Jessica Hill, Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2026
  • Mariko declines, and Blackthorne follows the courtesan alone, brushing his hand over Mariko’s on the way.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
  • One was a courtesan, the other a divorcée; both flouted the conventions of their milieux.
    — Adam Davidson, The New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2017
  • Lakan later earns enough money to buy out the contract of even the most expensive courtesan at the Verdigris House.
    — Kayti Burt, Time, 2 Apr. 2025
  • Chanel resonated with the story’s heroine, a courtesan who wore a white camellia as a token of availability.
    — Hannah Malach, WWD, 2 Mar. 2025
  • In 1890s France a courtesan falls in love with a young writer but strings along a duke who can finance improvements to the night spot.
    — Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2019
  • This is Sadaf Jafar, who stepped into the pretty decent-sized role of Bibbo, the maid who runs the home of the courtesan.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2020
  • The story told in Bhansali’s show ends before the lives of the courtesans evolved in these ways in modern Indian society.
    — Astha Rajvanshi, TIME, 2 May 2024
  • In Cellini’s book, a courtesan named Pantasilea makes a passing appearance.
    — Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
  • On one side of the street, azaleas — official shrub of the Mid-Atlantic — were just starting to peep out, each blossom a courtesan’s sly smile.
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2018
  • But the married Mariko calmly insisted the next morning that the dark encounter was actually with a courtesan.
    — Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 17 Apr. 2024
  • Soprano Amanda Woodbury sings the lead role in Verdi's opera about a courtesan in Paris.
    — Jim Higgins, jsonline.com, 25 Mar. 2026
  • Elisa has recently been orphaned for a second time by the death of her guardian, Rosaria, a minor courtesan who took her in after her parents’ untimely deaths.
    — Jess Bergman, The New Yorker, 8 Nov. 2023
  • The second story, which takes place in 1911, features Shu Qi as a singing courtesan living in a brothel.
    — Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 13 Aug. 2024
  • Queen of the Night is a big juicy epic about the many travails of an opera singer and courtesan in 18th-century France, her many enemies, and her many lovers.
    — Constance Grady, Vox, 3 Dec. 2024
  • Kidman made audiences weep as Satine, the beautiful courtesan who is the star of the eponymous club in turn-of-the-century Paris.
    — Mekishana Pierre, Entertainment Weekly, 16 Mar. 2026
  • Immerse yourself in the world of Violetta, a determined and famed courtesan, who abandons everything for love.
    — Kirby Adams, Louisville Courier Journal, 17 Feb. 2025
  • As the maid in Manet’s Olympia, Laure is presenting a large bouquet of flowers sent by a client of the naked courtesan who lies on a flotilla of white cushions.
    — Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, 10 Oct. 2018
  • Around them, the other courtesans—Mallikajaan’s daughters, siblings, and friends—grapple with their own hopes and desires for self-realization and freedom.
    — Astha Rajvanshi, TIME, 2 May 2024
  • Casanova finally met his match in London, in the person of the courtesan Marianne de Charpillon.
    — Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 6 July 2018
  • The courtesans were trained in music, etiquette and dance and the women of the area were a social symbol for the elite, with their presence at ceremonies a statement of class and wealth akin to Japan's geishas.
    — Saman Shafiq, USA TODAY, 30 Apr. 2024
  • This is the story of a lonely, widowed businessman, a courtesan, 1700s London, and a mermaid.
    — Teresa M. Hanafin, BostonGlobe.com, 4 June 2023
  • The victims are local teenagers, seized in roundups, while the courtesans, whose ghastly storytelling each night inspires the action, are like camp followers, the guards collaborators.
    — Harpers Magazine, 23 Sep. 2025

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