How to Use innocuous in a Sentence

innocuous

adjective
  • He told a few innocuous jokes.
  • Alarm bells should be ringing in your head at the innocuous tone.
    — Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2024
  • These innocuous greens look like weeds but taste better than spinach.
    — Von Diaz, Bon Appetit Magazine, 11 Dec. 2025
  • Looks like an innocuous piece of lifestyle brand spon-con, right?
    — Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 9 Nov. 2021
  • If anything, what an innocuous thing to say?
    — Mackenzie Cummings-Grady, Billboard, 7 Aug. 2025
  • At this time of year, a setback could prove to be ominous or innocuous.
    — Andy McCullough, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2026
  • What may seem innocuous at the time could lead to larger problems down the road.
    — Marc Zalmanoff, Forbes, 29 June 2022
  • But the defense has tried to show it all as innocuous, or even wholesome.
    — Jason Meisner, chicagotribune.com, 17 Sep. 2021
  • At times, an action may seem innocuous, but its impact may be great.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, Sun Sentinel, 12 Dec. 2022
  • The small trees, which look so innocuous, have in fact become a lifeline.
    — Mary Holland, Robb Report, 22 Apr. 2023
  • William Tong thought a puppy dog would be innocuous.
    — Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Of course, they can be used in fairly standard, innocuous ways.
    — Louise Matsakis, WIRED, 25 Apr. 2018
  • The episode opens with a scene that appears pretty innocuous.
    — Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 31 Oct. 2021
  • Most of these were horoscope skills that seemed fairly innocuous.
    — Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, 16 Nov. 2019
  • Rich asked a rep to school the group on this seemingly innocuous baking spice.
    — Mike Dang, Longreads, 1 Nov. 2017
  • And all this around an innocuous pair of Tabi-toed Mary-Janes.
    — Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 6 Sep. 2023
  • A week or so ago, he was sent a seemingly innocuous children's word search by one of his friends.
    — Jack Beresford, Newsweek, 30 Nov. 2024
  • Many of the counts appear, on the surface, to be somewhat innocuous.
    — Christian Boone, ajc, 4 May 2021
  • Many of their actions seem fairly innocuous.
    — Sam Fleischacker, Chicago Tribune, 27 Aug. 2025
  • That certainly seems like an innocuous chat.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 1 Sep. 2025
  • Then there were some rote questions and answers about life in prison, innocuous talk about my sister’s two teenage sons.
    — Christian Wiman, Harper’s Magazine , 14 Dec. 2022
  • The blood in the van could have come from an injury as innocuous as a bloody nose, O’Connor said.
    — David Owens, courant.com, 24 Jan. 2018
  • But one of the most important things he's received in support may seem innocuous to most.
    — Gabrielle Bunton, The Courier-Journal, 9 June 2021
  • Its eight half-hours don’t feel like time well spent so much as just spent, in ways too innocuous to hate but too tedious to treasure.
    — Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 1 May 2025
  • Most of the tips that come in to his department are found to be innocuous, Koren said.
    — Madeline Holcombe, CNN, 18 Aug. 2019
  • The most innocuous of attire, the basic yoga pant, has once again come under fire.
    — Colleen Kratofil, PEOPLE.com, 19 Feb. 2018
  • Some of their success may also be due to a fairly innocuous body part—thumbnails.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 4 Sep. 2025
  • This is something that a guy would think is innocuous, but any woman would gather up all of her friends and go to war over.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 3 June 2026
  • The innocuous comment is then followed by a remark of grave concern.
    — Miriam Fauzia, USA TODAY, 4 Nov. 2020
  • Right now, the sleeping and resting topic is innocuous.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026

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