How to Use inwardly in a Sentence

inwardly

adverb
  • She was outwardly calm but inwardly nervous.
  • Charleigh inwardly winced and froze in place, hand still on the knob.
    — Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 20 Jan. 2026
  • He was reserved and inwardly cast, there but somehow lost in his mind.
    — Nathan Heller, Vogue, 8 Aug. 2024
  • To be clear, there is nothing wrong with being inwardly focused.
    — Jeb Dasteel, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2022
  • Now, others rooting for a crash weren’t as inwardly focused.
    — Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Still, strategists’ gut instincts usually tell them how their clients have inwardly set their sights.
    — Trip Gabriel, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2023
  • My last takeaway is to learn how to enjoy spending some time alone and connecting inwardly.
    — Modar Bakir, Forbes, 27 Sep. 2021
  • Much of the despair among teenagers and young adults has been inwardly directed, with soaring rates of self-harm and suicide.
    — New York Times, 2 June 2022
  • But inwardly Kim was struggling with her mental health after the Olympics.
    — Macaela MacKenzie, Glamour, 28 Oct. 2022
  • Things feel really harmonious and good, both inwardly and outwardly in the band right now.
    — Julyssa Lopez, Rolling Stone, 2 Apr. 2024
  • But her classmates had no interest in civic life—in expanding themselves inwardly in order to be of help to the world.
    — Sheila Heti, The New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2025
  • Not one to get sentimental, Koda seems to beam inwardly.
    — Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 July 2016
  • So as Mike enjoyed the melon later that day, Penny inwardly cheered.
    — Claire Panosian Dunavan, Discover Magazine, 15 June 2018
  • Perhaps, just perhaps this teaches that to be kosher one's behavior must not only be correct, but inwardly pure.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, Jewish Journal, 9 Apr. 2018
  • Laura inwardly smirked at the characteristic self-doubt of a woman some eight years her junior.
    — Hannah Gold, Harper's Magazine, 19 Feb. 2025
  • But those inside the state, so inwardly proud of their home, come to despise that external reputation.
    — Anthony Slater, The Mercury News, 9 Feb. 2017
  • There are moments in the film where, outwardly, little is happening, but, inwardly, time seems to dilate to an epochal scale.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2022
  • And so that was something that actually gave me a lot of inspiration for finding layers and inwardly.
    — Senior Editor, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2025
  • For the curved screen, Apple is looking into having the display curve inwardly from top to bottom rather than curving the screen at the edges.
    — Debby Wu, Houston Chronicle, 24 Apr. 2018
  • The second group of HR advocates would focus inwardly on well-being in the workplace.
    — Modar Bakir, Forbes, 15 Nov. 2021
  • As a result, the outward empathy turns inwardly apathetic and stress levels rise while burnout runs rampant.
    — Paige Francis, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2023
  • Films and works of fiction about artists inwardly interrogating their origins, memories, country and legacy could be said to make up a genre of a kind.
    — Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Oct. 2022
  • But Schwimmer shouldn’t waste this opportunity to channel his gaze inwardly.
    — Chris Hughes | Bloomberg, Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2019
  • In spite of its treatise-like title, the novel can feel so inwardly directed that Heti appears to be writing only for herself.
    — Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker, 30 Apr. 2018
  • Thus Catholic school raised them to be inwardly divided, set against themselves—at once desiring and despising worldly things.
    — Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Regina turns her disdain outwardly, planning her escape, while Birde directs hers inwardly, seeing no way out.
    — Oline Cogdill, Sun Sentinel, 13 Jan. 2026
  • Historically, service providers focused on a few but not all stakeholders and inwardly focused on themselves.
    — Peter Bendor-Samuel, Forbes, 7 June 2021
  • Byrne’s Beckett may be less austere, outwardly and inwardly, than the author’s prevailing image.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2024
  • That double pursuit, outwardly hard-charging and inwardly serene, is the epitome of grace in every human endeavor.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 21 June 2024
  • Now, as a pandemic causes so many of us to live more inwardly, Macdonald’s is a voice of introspection that seems fully suited to the global grief.
    — Matt Damsker, USA TODAY, 25 Aug. 2020

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