How to Use folly in a Sentence

folly

noun
  • The folly of such an action should be apparent to everyone.
  • The follies of youth can go both ways.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 23 Dec. 2025
  • And yet, to think back on it now—what folly!
    — Literary Hub, 28 May 2026
  • To give up the fight now, to let my guard down, seems like folly.
    — Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2022
  • And here many see Trout's folly.
    — Ben Watanabe, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Nov. 2025
  • The idea seems like folly in part because of the scope of the idea.
    — Matthew Herper, STAT, 2 Mar. 2020
  • Around the league, the move was viewed as nothing short of folly.
    — Vince Guerrieri, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Events have called them to lead us through a high tide of reckless folly.
    — Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 1 Mar. 2025
  • Prometheus is not so much a film about the terror of aliens, but about the folly of man.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 18 May 2017
  • Man’s folly of fiascos is a feast for the flies.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 16 Apr. 2026
  • Man’s fiasco folly is a feast for the flies.
    — Kiana Mickles, Pitchfork, 16 Apr. 2026
  • Consumers across the country would have paid for this folly, too.
    — Stan Dempsey, The Denver Post, 1 Apr. 2017
  • But that’s the folly of blindly looking ahead.
    — Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 2 Jan. 2026
  • The two are shut off from the wider community by their folly.
    — Tim Parks, The New York Review of Books, 23 Feb. 2021
  • All this shows the folly of trying to figure out when stocks have hit bottom.
    — Jason Zweig, WSJ, 8 July 2022
  • The whole pageant model of virtue comes to seem like folly, and Kai is too smart to miss it.
    — Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, 19 June 2020
  • What counts as eccentric in the garden, and what counts as a folly?
    — James Fenton, The New York Review of Books, 16 Mar. 2023
  • The folly of counting Xavier out for those reasons should be plain.
    — Chris Johnson, SI.com, 11 Mar. 2018
  • Just steps from the swimming pool, the folly also houses a full bar and bath.
    — Steven Stolman, Town & Country, 26 May 2017
  • What folly is this, this unfounded wishing, if not hope?
    — Literary Hub, 23 Feb. 2026
  • There’s a scene outside in a stone folly, and there are two wet actors, in the middle of the night.
    — Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 5 Jan. 2021
  • Here the glory is threaded with human folly.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 22 Jan. 2026
  • So, let’s see a few of the options and which one is going to be your (and mine) folly for the season.
    — Gladys Louise Tyler, Forbes.com, 21 June 2026
  • Whisper the secrets of Your mercy, and my folly, in my ears.
    — Literary Hub, 13 May 2026
  • Repose en paix, Étoile, a folly made to delight about a dozen people.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025
  • Either maneuver would be the height of folly.
    — Thomas Drance, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Here are five things to know about Prince Aemond's finale folly.
    — Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 25 Oct. 2022
  • In the end, Güero — half-labrador, half-boxer, full-bodied goof — would pay for that folly.
    — Elaine Ayala, ExpressNews.com, 10 Sep. 2019
  • His body was writ over with his daring and folly, a testament to the fragility and strength of flesh and bone.
    — Alice Driver, Longreads, 20 Mar. 2018
  • Here, human folly moves against a backdrop of horror and magic.
    — Literary Hub, 2 June 2026

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