How to Use populous in a Sentence

populous

adjective
  • That set a record for what is now the world’s most populous nation.
    — Nick Anderson, Washington Post, 13 Nov. 2023
  • But not those bandied about in the general mock-draft populous.
    — Cam Inman, Mercury News, 23 Apr. 2026
  • That should not come as too much of a surprise–Wyoming is our least populous state.
    — Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes, 4 Jan. 2025
  • Asia is the world’s largest and most populous continent.
    — Ethan Teekah, Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 May 2026
  • In the world’s most populous nation, her gender may have been the reason.
    — Sarah Hutter, CNN Money, 16 Oct. 2025
  • Fouts wants to seek a fifth, four-year term as mayor of Michigan's third most populous city.
    — Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Some voters in the state’s most populous county were forced to wait in line for more than three hours to cast a ballot.
    — J.d. Davidson | The Center Square, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 4 Nov. 2024
  • The nearest big-box store is a 120-mile drive, one-way, from the tribe’s most populous town.
    — Shane Mitchell, Saveur, 6 Dec. 2023
  • The county is the most populous in the state and all of its top seats are up for grabs in 2024.
    — Sasha Hupka, The Arizona Republic, 9 July 2024
  • When the bell tolls at Purdue Northwest, its populous won’t have to ask for who.
    — Michelle L. Quinn, Chicago Tribune, 2 May 2022
  • The most populous part of the country, the capital Kingston, missed the brunt of the storm.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Texas has five of the 15 most populous cities in the United States.
    — Mateo Rosiles, USA Today, 14 May 2026
  • With a footprint in two of the world’s most populous countries, Gu is a sports marketer’s dream.
    — Zak Keefer, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2026
  • Here's the list for the top 50 most populous cities in the United States.
    — Matthew Korfhage, Wired News, 16 May 2025
  • The world’s most populous country has hankered after a Games for decades.
    — Blythe Lawrence, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
  • Then, the foreign aid groups who promised all sorts of help moved on as Ebola spread into more populous towns.
    — Caroline Chen, ProPublica, 27 Feb. 2023
  • Small towns certainly don’t have less to offer than their more populous siblings.
    — Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 15 Aug. 2025
  • China has been the most populous nation in the world since at least 1750.
    — Keith Zhai, WSJ, 30 May 2023
  • China has been the most populous nation in the world since at least 1750.
    — Nathaniel Taplin, WSJ, 5 July 2023
  • More from California, but that's the most populous state, so that makes sense.
    — Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 17 Aug. 2023
  • In Davis, Yolo County’s most populous city, the sky will be dark for most of the night.
    — Jack Rodriquez-Vars, Sacbee.com, 5 June 2025
  • Buncombe includes the tourist hub of Asheville, the region’s most populous city.
    — Jeff Amy, Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2024
  • Oahu, Hawaii's most populous island, and Maui, were hit hardest by the storms.
    — Connor Greene, Time, 23 Mar. 2026
  • For Asia’s two most populous countries, their huge scale magnifies the risks.
    — ABC News, 4 Mar. 2026
  • Yet the country’s second most-populous city has managed to botch the process of reviewing what went wrong.
    — Editorial Board, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2026
  • But as the air grows dirtier in many of the nation’s most populous areas, one city stands out for all the right reasons.
    — Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 22 Apr. 2026
  • India hit a record high demand for power over the weekend as a heat wave hit swaths of the world’s most populous nation.
    — J.d. Capelouto, semafor.com, 27 Apr. 2026
  • And yes, Holland was filmed squeezing into an aluminum sphere with the rest of the populous for that trip as well.
    — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 8 Aug. 2022
  • Preeti lives in Uttar Pradesh, a populous, poor state in the north of India.
    — Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
  • The world’s two most populous nations absorbed millions of barrels per day, at steep discounts.
    — Rhea Mogul, CNN Money, 10 Mar. 2026

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