How to Use magisterial in a Sentence

magisterial

adjective
  • He spoke with a magisterial tone.
  • Her singing voice is a magisterial thing — epic and portentous, even a little scary.
    — Owen Myers, EW.com, 30 June 2022
  • Ruest also replaced the magisterial district judge who had twice thrown out charges.
    — Washington Post, 8 July 2018
  • Roberts has so far played only a magisterial role in the proceedings.
    — Ephrat Livni, Quartz, 27 Jan. 2020
  • The horns were magisterial, their brass colleagues full and resilient.
    — Zachary Lewis, cleveland.com, 15 July 2019
  • The fact that it's been covered by punk bands, lounge singers, and indie stars is further testament to its magisterial mystery.
    — Debby Wolfinsohn, EW.com, 11 Aug. 2022
  • But then the song thickens up in its fourth minute with bleary, magisterial piano, and Yorke switches his vocal approach.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 29 June 2019
  • Spencer’s work has a magisterial quality; some of it has the feel of photographic painting.
    — Dominique Browning, New York Times, 29 May 2017
  • One always looks as fast as one can to the magisterial Cooper Union or the spinning black public sculpture.
    — Jerry Saltz, Curbed, 13 July 2021
  • Elba is always magisterial, and for years now, his fans have been floating his name as a candidate for the next James Bond.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 2 Apr. 2021
  • What’s happened since then is a useful reminder of the influence that one magisterial player exerts over the entire league.
    — Ben Cohen, WSJ, 15 Nov. 2018
  • But what was striking was not just his message, of love and inclusion; or his tone, which was soaring and magisterial; or his obvious delight in the matter at hand.
    — Sarah Lyall, New York Times, 19 May 2018
  • Like so much of the imagery of Ripley, this valley cupped along the Amalfi Coast appears magisterial and cold.
    — Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 30 Dec. 2024
  • Groupies, doormen, hippies, astronauts, bankers and frat boys took on a magisterial presence in his writing, and if there was a hint of hypocrisy in their actions, then all the better.
    — Thomas Curwen, sacbee, 15 May 2018
  • With this reinvention, the show morphed from a workplace drama into something more like a magisterial airport novel.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Embarking on the Ofoten line at Bjørnfjell, the train ran at the edge of a cliff as the fjords emerged below, magisterial in their quiet movement.
    — The Editors, Outside, 31 Aug. 2025
  • There have been pure hammerings inflicted by a magisterial opponent, there have been vain attempts to keep the score down, there have been have-a-go failures and defensive mishaps.
    — George Caulkin, The Athletic, 15 Feb. 2025
  • The building's setting along a riverside promenade was magisterial and yet for everyone, from kings and queens to Ronald Binge's man in the street.
    — Jonathan Glancey, CNN, 17 Sep. 2022
  • Most days, the memorial is just crowded, crammed with tourists and school groups climbing to see the magisterial sculpture of a sitting Abraham Lincoln.
    — National Geographic, 9 June 2020
  • This magisterial work focuses on the failure to prevent World War II.
    — Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs, 1 Nov. 2022
  • As the movement progressed, the interpretation took on an epic scale, the basses growling, the upper strings magisterial in fugal passages.
    — Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 27 Sep. 2019
  • That curtain — a magisterial gold cloth — clues us into parts of the show’s purpose and intention, reflecting the promise and possibility of the outside world.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Oct. 2022
  • But the magisterial opera composer Franz Schreker was shattered by the events of 1933 and died of a stroke the following year.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2026
  • The spire of flowers, in its full glory, has long felt to me like a hint of regal splendor, and fittingly, this magisterial tree is called the Magnolia Elizabeth.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 6 May 2022
  • Shortly thereafter, Churchill did just that, penning a magisterial six-volume series on the Second World War.
    — Tod Worner, National Review, 17 Oct. 2021
  • Not so in soloist Paul Jacobs’ magisterial playing of the organ part, which built to a thrilling roar of low pedal sonority in the final pages that must have set off every seismograph in the state.
    — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 12 May 2018
  • This magisterial polemic demonstrates how what may appear to be distant American history remains acutely relevant.
    — Anna Holmes, The Atlantic, 27 May 2026
  • Mawdsley presents a scrupulous and magisterial account of naval warfare from 1939 to 1945.
    — Foreign Affairs, 13 Oct. 2020
  • The eight-movement suite was a wonderful study in contrasts, from the magisterial Sarabande to the aggressive, quicksilver filigree of the final Gigue.
    — Paul Hodgins, Orange County Register, 22 Apr. 2017
  • In the journal Nature, journalist Jeff Tollefson recently offered that magisterial overview of the climate challenge and the progress that’s been made so far.
    — David Roberts, Vox, 30 Apr. 2018

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