How to Use precipitous in a Sentence

precipitous

adjective
  • There has been a precipitous decline in home sales recently.
  • People were shocked by his precipitous fall from political power.
  • That's a precipitous fall from sixth last year and eighth the year before.
    — Jr Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 29 July 2019
  • Since then, it's been a precipitous drop down the leaderboard.
    — Brendan Marks, charlotteobserver, 21 June 2018
  • There’s then a precipitous drop-off to a third tier that includes plays ranked five through seven.
    — Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 16 Feb. 2018
  • The iPad has endured a precipitous three years, with unit sales at about a third of their peak.
    — Alex Webb, Bloomberg.com, 11 May 2017
  • Prices have remained steady, though, after a precipitous drop over the last two months.
    — John Steppe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 29 Apr. 2020
  • What is the stock market telling us with its precipitous drop over the last several days?
    — Neil Irwin, New York Times, 6 Feb. 2018
  • The change coincides with a precipitous drop in sea ice cover around the same time.
    — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Apr. 2021
  • And what’s up with Deb, the third cha-cha babe, who’s losing parts of her mind at a precipitous rate?
    — Beth Kephart, Philly.com, 6 July 2018
  • The precipitous, and lasting, fall-off would have two causes.
    — Sharon Begley, STAT, 1 May 2020
  • The precipitous drop transformed the economy, and has a long way to go.
    — Aurora Almendral, Quartz, 4 Feb. 2022
  • Out to the right, a precipitous drop swiftly turned the seabed from sand to grass, a secret grove of turtles.
    — Hannah Selinger, Travel + Leisure, 20 Feb. 2023
  • There’s no reason to think his precipitous rise will slow down in his age-27 season.
    — Si.com Staff, SI.com, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Such a precipitous fall on that end of the floor has been one of the many issues that has plagued Phoenix this season.
    — Mikai Bruce, Forbes.com, 1 Apr. 2025
  • Ghosn's precipitous fall from the high life to solitary confinement in prison.
    — Stuart Miller, Car and Driver, 25 Aug. 2023
  • Jannek, about 10 steps in the lead, and the lightest, made it across the precipitous slope to a stand of trees.
    — Kelzim, Longreads, 19 Feb. 2022
  • Neither player is at his peak, but neither has had a precipitous fall-off, either.
    — Peter Baugh, New York Times, 17 Dec. 2025
  • What happened during the time in between was a precipitous fall for Rodgers.
    — Antwan Staley, New York Daily News, 5 Jan. 2025
  • But as the omicron wave peaked and began a precipitous descent, so did the urgency for the shots.
    — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 14 Mar. 2022
  • The fall has been precipitous even among those most receptive to the mixing of business and issues.
    — David Hessekiel, Forbes, 23 Sep. 2024
  • The power of the Kennedy name has also been in precipitous decline at the ballot box for years.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 17 July 2023
  • This year’s slate represents a precipitous 68% drop from that peak.
    — Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2026
  • The mother struggled to put food on the table after the precipitous loss of income.
    — Megan Sandel and Charlotte Bruce, STAT, 28 Mar. 2023
  • While video streams were up in the week following the verdict, there will likely be a precipitous drop-off in the coming days.
    — Emily Blake, Rolling Stone, 8 Oct. 2021
  • But for the team’s second home game here, the Athletics logged a precipitous dip in ticket sales.
    — Annika Merrilees, Sacbee.com, 2 Apr. 2025
  • An opinion seemingly backed up by the precipitous second-week dropoff at the box office.
    — Culture Critic, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2026
  • The impact, combined with a precipitous fall in the oil price, caused the value of the ruble to fall by half against the dollar that year.
    — Anatoly Kurmanaev, WSJ, 20 Aug. 2018
  • Most of all, the lawyers noticed the precipitous drop in Mary’s weight under county custody.
    — Sarah Stillman, New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2025
  • That was the start of a precipitous decline for the Italian, who comes in ranked 203rd in the world.
    — Ben Nuckols, Baltimore Sun, 4 May 2022

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