How to Use paternalism in a Sentence

paternalism

noun
  • Maybe there’s a compelling line to be drawn between this fable of fathers and sons and the pratfalls of paternalism.
    — Naveen Kumar, Vulture, 21 July 2022
  • Sweet is an unlikely advocate for a kind of soft paternalism.
    — Sandeep Jauhar, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2018
  • That case makes clear the underlying paternalism of schools' approach to speech.
    — Nicole Hemmer, CNN, 25 June 2021
  • Here is Dwight’s defining paternalism turned into a source of injury.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 29 Oct. 2020
  • This isn’t strictly out of paternalism (although there are elements of that).
    — Rob Reid, Ars Technica, 18 July 2018
  • The latter was no less idealistic for being a product of the racial paternalism of its day.
    — Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 6 Feb. 2024
  • There’s also paternalism that emerges that these people are not civilized.
    — Terrell Jermaine Starr, The Root, 17 Oct. 2017
  • Our state chose a path defined by complexity and paternalism.
    — Lou Rinaldi, Hartford Courant, 26 Jan. 2026
  • The challenge to corporate paternalism is not going to come from the billionaires and pop stars.
    — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 13 May 2021
  • So this is not about white paternalism, this is about African-American agency.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 19 June 2018
  • The case against paternalism in genetics is a cause célèbre among many scientists and science writers.
    — David Dobbs, WIRED, 14 Jan. 2013
  • Within his own country, Lukashenka has imposed a kind of harsh paternalism.
    — Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 6 Dec. 2021
  • Among those who lease to women, higher rents, surveillance and paternalism are often the urban norm.
    — Damien Cave, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2023
  • World over, this is a crisis that has re-established the writ of the state, and state paternalism is exactly what the doctor ordered.
    — Suvojit Chattopadhyay, Quartz India, 26 Mar. 2020
  • This brand of violent paternalism mutated in modern times but never went away.
    — Nick Martin, The New Republic, 8 Jan. 2020
  • There is a lot of paternalism inherent in many of the conversations about the changing climate.
    — Daniel Starkey, Ars Technica, 4 Sep. 2022
  • Their romance is a study of love and difference, of how pity and paternalism can stifle true communication.
    — Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2018
  • But the Chinese government does exhibit a great deal of paternalism.
    — David Marchese David Marchese, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2023
  • Second, the arguments for paternalism strike me as very weak in the context of other issues in the broader society.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 12 Mar. 2011
  • How much paternalism or protection should a regulator aim to provide to such retail investors?
    — Shivaram Rajgopal, Forbes, 21 June 2022
  • Luckily, this particular type of paternalism seems as much a relic of the ’80s as the floppy disk.
    — John Berlau and Gibson Kirsch, WSJ, 18 Mar. 2020
  • Today, the paternalism struggles to disguise itself, as in the recent variety show.
    — The Economist, 22 Feb. 2018
  • Gallardo’s scorn for the paternalism of an economic system in which the rich control even the souls of the poor is understated but vicious.
    — S. C. Cornell, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2023
  • Clintonites were convinced of their altruism while designing and selling their plans with undisguised nasty paternalism.
    — Alex Pareene, The New Republic, 16 May 2022
  • But this was just another sign of Australian paternalism, said Jim Bero, one of the pub’s seven board members.
    — John Eligon, New York Times, 26 June 2017
  • Sometimes, in other words, paternalism can work in a certain sense, whether those of us with libertarian inclinations like it or not.
    — Robert Verbruggen, National Review, 24 Oct. 2019
  • The outrage theater will hurt him, but the underlying questions — What are the proper limits of state paternalism toward the poor?
    — Nr Editors, National Review, 5 Dec. 2019
  • The minigame awkwardly merges latent paternalism with the crudely gamelike instructions to rotate the joystick to avoid the pouring water.
    — Nick Capozzoli, Ars Technica, 22 Nov. 2019
  • The Kodak way was paternalism, a term that was first intended affectionately.
    — Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 16 June 2021
  • But such paternalism is a reality for hundreds of thousands of Americans using methadone to treat opioid addiction and live a healthy life.
    — Paul J. Joudrey and Adam J. Gordon, STAT, 25 Dec. 2021

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