How to Use layperson in a Sentence

layperson

noun
  • What happened may seem clear to a layperson viewing the footage.
    — Jonah E. Bromwich, New York Times, 5 May 2023
  • Of course, the layperson cannot always discern much from the soil.
    — Elizabeth Waddington, Treehugger, 20 Feb. 2023
  • Sure, floating shelves look great in photos when styled by a pro or even by a layperson with a good eye.
    — Kathryn O’Shea-Evans, WSJ, 30 Dec. 2020
  • Here’s a layperson’s look at the states and laws that may determine the outcome.
    — Rachel Glickhouse, ProPublica, 6 Nov. 2020
  • In layperson’s terms, the ride is buttery-smooth over even the harshest impacts.
    — Michael Harley, Forbes, 28 Oct. 2024
  • Walter said changes would need to be made if a layperson fills in as head librarian.
    — Linda Girardi, Aurora Beacon-News, 20 June 2017
  • Yet this idea has been touted by business leaders, academics and laypersons.
    — Eric Waller, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2023
  • To the layperson, that sounds like putting the wolf in charge of determining the best way to build the chicken coop.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 22 Dec. 2020
  • The project now relies more on forest thinning and less on methods that, to a layperson, can look much like clear-cuts.
    — April Ehrlich, ProPublica, 12 Nov. 2024
  • This is how layperson access to naloxone has been successful at saving lives over the past two decades.
    — Jennifer Plumb, Washington Post, 7 July 2017
  • To a layperson, this sounds a lot like exchanging one idea for another —simple enough.
    — Lee Daniel Kravetz, The Cut, 31 July 2017
  • Is googol a number any actual layperson has ever needed to use?
    — Amy Brady, Scientific American, 16 June 2022
  • Don’t take it from a layperson like me; ask your child’s pediatrician or the hotline.
    — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Proper fit, meanwhile, which is also key, is difficult for the layperson to achieve.
    — Megan Cerullo, CBS News, 1 Feb. 2021
  • After all, everyone is a layperson in some facets of their existence.
    — Zach St. George, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024
  • For a layperson, being served with a subpoena to testify largely ties your hands.
    — Philip Bump, Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2018
  • Although his abuser was a layperson, not a priest, the crime was still covered up in his local community.
    — The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
  • Sproul worried about the man or the woman in the pew, the layperson as opposed to the clergy who had the seminary training.
    — Russell Pulliam, Washington Post, 15 Dec. 2017
  • Whether your a layperson or a professional, the texture, scent, look, and feel of a product are critical.
    — Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz, Quartzy, 2 July 2019
  • To the layperson, this wall would appear essentially blank and completely devoid of hand or footholds.
    — Owen Clarke, Outside Online, 11 Apr. 2025
  • The layperson in 2009 knew more about financial markets than ten years prior.
    — Prince Ghuman, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2021
  • In layperson’s terms, a will is a legal document that dictates where your assets will be distributed upon your death.
    — Ronny Maye, Essence, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Topgolf aims to reset how the layperson experiences the game by placing a new kind of welcome mat outside golf’s haughty front gates.
    — Michael McKnight, Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2022
  • For the layperson, tell me what remastering does, and will people notice a difference in this new version?
    — Katherine Turman, SPIN, 3 Feb. 2025
  • Despite all that, conjectures by laypersons that the illness or death of acquaintances can be traced to the vaccines are legion.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2024
  • Each episode alternates between who does the research and who plays the layperson peppering the other host with questions.
    — Eliana Dockterman, Time, 20 Dec. 2019
  • Wilding’s evidence seems obvious in hindsight, even to a layperson.
    — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 8 June 2026
  • For the layperson, choosing a safe, clean, natural beauty product comes down primarily to the stuff that is not in it, as opposed to what is.
    — Pamela N. Danziger, Forbes, 2 Aug. 2022
  • This bill that’s going to try to put the Fed under appropriations, again, looks like, from a layperson’s view, like, well, that seems like a good idea.
    — WSJ, 11 July 2017
  • Still, in various opinions issued Tuesday, the judges in Scott's case allowed that the question might sound odd to a layperson.
    — Larry Neumeister, Star Tribune, 6 Mar. 2021

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