How to Use monosyllabic in a Sentence

monosyllabic

adjective
  • The movie star was monosyllabic with newspaper reporters.
  • Mueller’s halting, monosyllabic style could hardly be described as telegenic and, in this case, the book was better than the movie.
    — Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, 24 July 2019
  • Only Chip fielded the phone calls, awkward, monosyllabic, for fear his mother would overhear and be hurt.
    — Lauren Groff, The New Yorker, 27 Apr. 2021
  • The most common one, Sa-heel, is at least an honest attempt—unlike its mutant twin, a monosyllabic mess that comes out sounding like seal.
    — Saahil Desai, The Atlantic, 17 July 2023
  • Furthermore, the crushes in my life were street-smart, grittier boys who probably never had a car, lived in a house, or had monosyllabic names.
    — Elana Rabinowitz, Baltimore Sun, 1 July 2024
  • Those exchanges are often monosyllabic and charged with unspoken feeling.
    — Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2023
  • Mat, 48, spends most of his time tending to things in the basement, speaks in monosyllabic murmurs, and wears Keens and Carhartt.
    — Hanna Krueger, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Apr. 2022
  • Instead of the Greenlandic way – long silences and monosyllabic answers – there comes an outpouring.
    — Krista Stevens, Longreads, 19 Aug. 2019
  • And there was Shane, an irresistible, monosyllabic lothario, who inspired both ire and emulation.
    — Crispin Long, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2019
  • Such a combustible mix of tempers, egos, bald heads and monosyllabic surnames surely warranted a stand-alone entertainment of its own.
    — Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2019
  • Now Arnold wanders the house in a jolly monosyllabic stupor, barely able to negotiate a doorknob.
    — Tony Adler, Chicago Reader, 12 July 2017
  • The past 12 months have been a rollicking time for strange, monosyllabic corporate media rebrandings.
    — Maya Kosoff, The Hive, 3 Apr. 2017
  • Daboll, who typically mutters his way through monosyllabic answers after games, raved about the character and work ethic of his team Sunday.
    — Dan Duggan, The Athletic, 29 Dec. 2024
  • Harris said, lowering his voice to mimic the announcer’s dramatic, monosyllabic tone.
    — Billy Witz Sasha Portis, New York Times, 31 Dec. 2022
  • Luckily for him, and for us, the boy is befriended by a monosyllabic goatherd with hardscrabble but successful strategies to survive in this dystopian world of rancid wells and withered lone fig trees.
    — Natalie Serber, New York Times, 28 Aug. 2017
  • During the interview, Laurent was a typical 9-year-old, giving short or monosyllabic answers.
    — Elian Peltier, New York Times, 15 Nov. 2019
  • Facebook commenters were mostly against the sheriff, but also typically monosyllabic.
    — Dan Sweeney, Sun-Sentinel.com, 27 Apr. 2018
  • Rick likens his son’s interactions with the media to those of Bill Belichick, the legendary football coach and master of the monosyllabic press conference.
    — Tom Kludt, Vanity Fair, 17 Feb. 2026
  • Consequently, one of the unwritten rules of the boxing gym — the kind of joint where floorboards come stained in sweat and where communication can be monosyllabic — is that everyone is welcome.
    — Ben Wyatt, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2023
  • For every assessment Hess relayed, Allen offered a monosyllabic response.
    — New York Times, 23 Sep. 2021
  • Russia’s greatest living composers had never met before, and conversation was monosyllabic.
    — Norman Lebrecht, WSJ, 29 Dec. 2023
  • Paul wasn't always a monosyllabic loafer on the lookout for easy money, and Mazino reveals the poignant loneliness dwelling inside Danny's sweet, stymied little brother.
    — Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 3 Apr. 2023
  • There, Smith shed more tears as reporters asked questions between sniffles and snippets of monosyllabic answers in which the former Mount Saint Joseph star blamed himself.
    — Don Markus, baltimoresun.com, 2 Nov. 2019
  • Borges tells us that in Tlön’s Ursprache there are no nouns; instead, there are impersonal verbs, modified by monosyllabic prefixes with an adverbial value.
    — Literary Hub, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The series accomplished that, notably, with heroes that were particularly obscure and outlandish, including a talking raccoon and a monosyllabic tree.
    — Brian Lowry, CNN, 5 May 2023
  • There is none of the pouty celebrity I-would-rather-be-doing-anything-other-than-this monosyllabic slouch, nor is every answer punctuated with Sorry-I-have-to-take-this-call.
    — Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 27 June 2017
  • Between Seo’s narrative drawing of repression and Ho’s monosyllabic performance, silence — and the shattering of that silence — becomes a de facto theme.
    — Lila Seidman, Glendale News-Press, 1 Aug. 2019
  • In 2014, Marvel turned Guardians of the Galaxy, an obscure comic featuring aliens, a talking raccoon and a monosyllabic tree, into a massive hit.
    — Eliana Dockterman, Time, 21 June 2017
  • On the other side of the tent, though, Bernhard Hauser, 40, of Burghausen, was hunched over, eyes peeking out from a stack of blankets, offering monosyllabic utterances through clattering teeth as three paramedics kept close watch.
    — Andrew Keh, New York Times, 26 Dec. 2016
  • Voi Scooter companies often seem indistinguishable, with their monosyllabic names (Scoot, Skip, Spin) and identikit hardware.
    — Alison Griswold, Quartz, 16 Dec. 2019

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