How to Use moral authority in a Sentence

moral authority

noun
  • Such was this woman’s moral authority and grace.
    — Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 12 Feb. 2026
  • But celebrity power and moral authority are not the same thing.
    — Debbie Millman, Time, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Without faith, there is no greater moral authority than ourselves.
    — WSJ, 24 Oct. 2023
  • Today, the office of the pope is widely perceived to be one of moral authority.
    — Elizabeth Dias, New York Times, 8 May 2025
  • Becker writes about her friends with moral authority and empathy.
    — Literary Hub, 19 Dec. 2025
  • This failure to act was a failure of leadership and moral authority.
    — Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 4 Aug. 2024
  • Steven has more moral authority than anyone else on episodic TV.
    — Chris Snellgrove, EW.com, 18 Jan. 2024
  • Steven has more moral authority than anyone else on episodic TV.
    — Chris Snellgrove, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Mar. 2026
  • At the end of the day, this administration has lost the moral authority to lead and should do us all a mercy and step out of the way.
    — Ryan Murphy, IndyStar, 24 Oct. 2025
  • The former shattered the regime’s moral authority.
    — Washington Post, 5 Jan. 2026
  • But each became in his own era a moral authority for the thinking part of Russian society.
    — Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 17 May 2024
  • That does not necessarily elevate their moral authority or give them the right to hand out easy verdicts.
    — Yiyun Li, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
  • America was losing its moral authority in the world (think Abu Ghraib and the torture memo).
    — Robert B. Reich, Hartford Courant, 9 June 2026
  • The angst over his exclusion is based on the false premise that the Hall of Fame still possesses the moral authority to judge him.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 4 Dec. 2025
  • What once was a demand for repair has become a permanent identity, a status that claims moral authority and power.
    — Jonathan Alpert, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Our moral authority is often presumed, especially when our children are under threat.
    — Emily Raboteau, The New York Review of Books, 1 Nov. 2020
  • History has shown us that giving government moral authority over its people is a route to an uncivil society.
    — Charles F. Miller, Hartford Courant, 21 Apr. 2026
  • And are centrist Democrats onto something or will their advice diminish their party’s moral authority?
    — Shikha Dalmia, Washington Post, 13 Oct. 2025
  • When there is no one around who can say that with unassailable moral authority, then the field of political discourse may open up to ideas about noble nuclear conflict.
    — Kevin Dickinson, Big Think, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Jackson argued that moral authority and economic strength were intertwined.
    — Alexanderia Baker-Haidara, semafor.com, 27 Feb. 2026
  • Israel has had moral authority since October 7th.
    — NBC news, 3 Aug. 2025
  • Too many human rights groups and feminist organizations that claim moral authority have refused to acknowledge what was done to these women.
    — Diana Fersko, New York Daily News, 11 Apr. 2025
  • No state has the moral authority to administer the ultimate punishment.
    — Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
  • Her intellect and wit are undiminished; her moral authority is overpowering.
    — The New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2023
  • Yet for all its moral authority, Lange’s work was also a vector for manipulation and propaganda.
    — Kriston Capps, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2024
  • The actress never fully manages to connect the dots, and Robyn’s journey from abrasive housemate to concerned, moral authority is muddled at best.
    — Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 13 Sep. 2024
  • And for the most part, thanks in no small part to the moral authority of the excellent James as the crusading Chicago journalist, Taub pulls it off.
    — Chris Jones, New York Daily News, 18 Apr. 2024
  • Baron claims no objective journalist would appoint themselves a moral authority or fail to acknowledge their own limitations.
    — Max Moran, The New Republic, 4 Apr. 2023
  • The State of Missouri, backed by the imprudent negligence of the federal government, took a life that wasn’t theirs and with no moral authority.
    — Brea Baker, refinery29.com, 1 Oct. 2024
  • The season is similarly probing about the moral authority that can be reflexively assigned to women over men in our fantasies of female vengeance for male aggression.
    — Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2024

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