How to Use improvise in a Sentence

improvise

verb
  • If you forget any of your lines, try to improvise.
  • He had to improvise his opening speech when he forgot his notes.
  • Good jazz musicians know how to improvise.
  • The trumpet player performed an improvised solo.
  • I wasn't expecting guests, so I had to improvise a meal with what I had in my refrigerator.
  • Prank calls forced you to learn how to improvise.
    — Arkansas Online, 17 Feb. 2026
  • Gere then went on to share that the scene had been improvised.
    — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 1 Sep. 2024
  • At one point, she was asked to put down the sides and improvise.
    — Michael Schneider, Variety, 21 May 2025
  • And a lot of, a lot of our trip has just been sort of improvised.
    — Katherine Lagrave, AFAR Media, 5 Mar. 2025
  • None of that can be improvised.
    — John Kerry, semafor.com, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Does Lynne do many takes and improvise on set?
    — Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 3 Nov. 2025
  • That whole scene is improvised.
    — Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 19 Feb. 2026
  • To get to play and improvise with one of the greats was a special thing.
    — Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 21 Mar. 2025
  • Word soon got around about the comer who could improvise with the best.
    — Robert D. McFadden, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Aug. 2022
  • In my own dollhouse, my dolls are not forced to improvise.
    — Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Frank showed me more advanced chords and new ways to improvise.
    — Marc Myers, WSJ, 20 Nov. 2018
  • And the fact that this is a guy who kind of improvises his way through life.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 22 Nov. 2019
  • Those celebs are not given a script and must improvise their way through the episode.
    — Michael Schneider, Variety, 27 June 2022
  • The group said the district process was not improvised.
    — Nick Wooten, Dallas Morning News, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Al-Ashrafi has had to improvise.
    — Freddie Clayton, NBC news, 21 Feb. 2026
  • Just like the show's writers, movers know how to improvise.
    — Noel Brennan, CBS News, 9 June 2026
  • The model improvised by walking on her toes for the rest of the show.
    — Erika Harwood, Vanities, 12 Sep. 2017
  • The wrap party, that was all improvised.
    — Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Dec. 2025
  • Both plays by Bellinger on the winning drive had to be improvised.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Oct. 2019
  • The character was born while the star improvised on a live show.
    — Hal Boedeker, OrlandoSentinel.com, 13 June 2018
  • But the twist is that the guests don’t have a script and must improvise their way to finding each killer.
    — Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2022
  • The name of the bride and groom were provided, and the artist improvised.
    — Erin MacLeod, The New York Review of Books, 22 May 2019
  • Although their words are improvised, the structure of the show is not.
    — Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2019
  • Then the lights go out, and the family has to improvise.
    — Sari Hitchins, Parents, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Some lyrics are improvised, which may explain why the opening track feels vague.
    — The Week Us, TheWeek, 18 Mar. 2026

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