How to Use diversionary in a Sentence

diversionary

adjective
  • This is nothing more than a diversionary tactic to distract attention from the issues.
  • So all this is sort of a diversionary debate.
    — Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 30 Jan. 2026
  • They will be sent to a diversionary program rather than into the courts.
    — Sami Sparber, Axios, 3 Jan. 2025
  • No amount of diversionary talk over other evidence can now change that.
    — Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 5 Apr. 2018
  • If not, Peltz will have his work cut out for him at the proxy ballot box as a diversionary illusionist.
    — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 7 Nov. 2023
  • Whether this help should go to prisons and jails or diversionary programs is another hot debate.
    — Morgan Simon, Forbes, 19 Jan. 2022
  • The squirter might also try to clean the spot, another diversionary tactic.
    — Andrea Sachs, Twin Cities, 10 Aug. 2019
  • Is in-class pizza so normal in US schools that it can be used as a diversionary tactic?
    — Charlie Sorrel, WIRED, 5 Dec. 2007
  • Burning the casino could be a diversionary tactic for his escape.
    — Todd Pitman, The Seattle Times, 3 June 2017
  • But diversionary structures opened up a legal can of worms, explained Lockwood.
    — Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 27 Mar. 2014
  • All five students agreed to the diversionary programs, officials said.
    — Laura Fay, CBS News, 15 June 2026
  • One man’s look back at the best of times, which – as pointed out in a couple diversionary chapters – includes some men with the worst of intentions.
    — Mark Zeigler, sandiegouniontribune.com, 5 July 2017
  • The profound state-society conflict that has ensued since then may provoke the regime to look for a diversionary battle.
    — Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar, Foreign Affairs, 10 Apr. 2023
  • The ensemble’s game, but nobody gets much in the way of lighthearted diversion even in the diversionary bits.
    — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 9 Feb. 2022
  • With the diversionary force defeated, Russia went on the offensive for phase two.
    — David Filipov, Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2017
  • Flores Silva’s bodyguards dispersed as a diversionary tactic, but he was found while trying to hide in a drainage pipe.
    — Rocío Muñoz-Ledo, CNN Money, 29 Apr. 2026
  • When large predators defend their food caches, ravens call in other flock members to engage in diversionary tactics for gaining access to the food.
    — Onur Güntürkün, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2020
  • The group provides support for community members who have had, or plan to have, diversionary bowel and bladder surgery.
    — Linda McIntosh, sandiegouniontribune.com, 27 June 2018
  • Before the city installed diversionary pipes and drains, almost every neighborhood had a natural pond or two.
    — Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 30 Jan. 2026
  • The Russians will be looking for signs of where the brigades are deployed and whether they will be split up to enable supporting or diversionary attacks.
    — Tim Lister, CNN, 16 Apr. 2023
  • In many of those cases, defendants agreed to enter diversionary programs that resulted in charges being erased.
    — Dave Collins, courant.com, 29 July 2021
  • When the Chinese economy falters, the danger is not diversionary war.
    — M. Taylor Fravel, Foreign Affairs, 15 Sep. 2023
  • The budget crisis has assured that any cost savings will be used to meet operational needs, rather than treatment and diversionary programs.
    — John Papasodora, Alaska Dispatch News, 22 Oct. 2017
  • According to court records, her pending case has been ordered sealed by a judge — which can be done in cases when a defendant applies for a diversionary program.
    — Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 18 Mar. 2026
  • Both Brady and Belichick have developed their own diversionary tactics with the media.
    — Conor Orr, SI.com, 5 Jan. 2018
  • When applicable, veterans charged with a crime can instead complete a diversionary program after which the charges against them will be dropped.
    — Perry Vandell, The Arizona Republic, 1 Apr. 2022
  • Mayo was eventually stopped when the officer used a diversionary tactic.
    — Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 29 Apr. 2026
  • In the end, Higgins gives us an Elon Musk who functions most strikingly as a diversionary tactic.
    — Jo Livingstone, The New Republic, 6 Aug. 2021
  • The smartest diversionary actions also have some substantive merit, precisely so the true agenda is harder to spot.
    — Dominic Tierney, The Atlantic, 11 May 2016
  • Fourth, those opposed to the message of the film resort to classic diversionary tactics to create false controversy.
    — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 31 Aug. 2017

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