How to Use litmus in a Sentence

litmus

noun
  • An early clash with Florida will be a good litmus test for this team.
    — Matt Murschel, OrlandoSentinel.com, 20 Aug. 2017
  • Lawyers for both sides have attempted to suss out potential bias with their own litmus tests.
    — Tessa Stuart, Rolling Stone, 26 Oct. 2021
  • In the end, Perez walked back his walk-back, announcing there was no litmus test after all.
    — Christine Emba, Twin Cities, 7 May 2017
  • The litmus test that separates the natives from the outsiders or tourists is the way the street names are pronounced.
    — Monique Judge, The Root, 29 June 2017
  • Ideological litmus tests make no sense when the future of the nation is on the line.
    — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 23 Dec. 2021
  • Cincinnati is more of a litmus for NFL attendance than most places.
    — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 3 Oct. 2017
  • But in this year’s Central Division, the litmus tests may not come every night.
    — Matthew Defranks, Dallas News, 3 Feb. 2021
  • All that may signal that even for Republicans, now past the primaries, those stances aren't the same litmus tests.
    — Anthony Salvanto, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, CBS News, 14 Sep. 2022
  • The past week has brought a career-defining litmus test for secretaries of state in capitals across the country.
    — James Hohmann, Washington Post, 6 July 2017
  • Let’s use the following multiple-choice criteria as a good litmus.
    — Jeff Sentell, ajc, 11 Oct. 2017
  • Not that long ago, prominent Democrats had to overcome these kinds of religious litmus tests themselves.
    — Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press, 10 Aug. 2021
  • In 1988, the litmus tests included abstinence and prayer in school.
    — M.l. Elrick, Detroit Free Press, 24 Apr. 2022
  • His candidacy wasn't about passing litmus tests, but about changing the broad direction of the party.
    — Noah Millman, The Week, 19 Nov. 2021
  • First, some issues sharply define liberals and conservatives — litmus tests for each side of the spectrum.
    — NBC News, 14 Nov. 2021
  • New York’s Tere O’Connor is a litmus-test kind of choreographer.
    — SFChronicle.com, 5 Nov. 2019
  • Controversy over the plan changed city politics, and became a litmus-test for citywide elections.
    — Dallas News, 6 Aug. 2020
  • Therefore, the Cardinals only had two litmus tests for players who on the fringe of its roster cuts to prove themselves to remain.
    — Dana Scott, The Arizona Republic, 30 Aug. 2021
  • In other matchups over the course of the rivalry with the Patriots, the Ravens passed litmus tests with flying colors.
    — Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY, 16 Nov. 2020
  • In more seriousness, the home opener should give the Steelers an early litmus test against what was one of the league's best defenses last year.
    — cleveland.com, 5 July 2017
  • Many polls suggest that the referendum could be seen as a litmus test for the Renzi government — a big risk for the prime minister.
    — Elisabetta Povoledo, New York Times, 2 Dec. 2016
  • Such a belief cannot be, and frankly has never been, the litmus test for policy in the Republican Party.
    — Brian Beutler, New Republic, 14 July 2017
  • Gone are the days of 90-plus votes in favor of a nominee, replaced by partisan votes and clear political litmus tests.
    — Jeff Zeleny, Kevin Liptak and Phil Mattingly, CNN, 4 Feb. 2022
  • For the moment, Zverev, 24, has yet to reach the top spot and yet to win one of the four major titles that remain tennis’ litmus tests of greatness.
    — Christopher Clarey, New York Times, 21 Nov. 2021
  • One of the key litmus tests of empathic leadership is the ability to bring all employees into the decision-making process.
    — Ross Wainwright, Forbes, 4 June 2021
  • The car isn’t just a make-or-break vehicle for Tesla but a litmus test for whether the electric-vehicle market can go mainstream at more than niche sales levels.
    — Bengt Halvorson, Car and Driver, 4 July 2017
  • Those are the factors to keep one’s eyes on, not the self-interested grousing of CEOs and right-wing partisan litmus tests.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2021
  • Instead of a litmus test on Jones' zeal, the trial—by design—contained little of the bombast the radio host is known for by his millions of online followers.
    — Ryan Katz, Esquire, 28 Apr. 2017
  • But longtime organizers from all sets of the anti-Trump Venn diagram know the pitfalls of treating mass protest as a litmus test for potency.
    — Natasha Lennard, Esquire, 13 May 2017
  • The various answers to that question have provided quite the litmus test over the past few months on the topic of how much one believes politics plays into the minds of NFL front offices.
    — Chris Burke, SI.com, 5 June 2017
  • Back-to-back weekend series against the Red Sox and Yankees have provided the Cubs with an early-season litmus test, the kind that usually doesn't matter in the long run.
    — Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 6 May 2017

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