How to Use pretty in a Sentence

pretty

1 of 4 adjective
  • She received a pretty sum of money.
  • He made a pretty profit selling his antique car.
  • But the sheets are more than pretty.
    — Yelena Moroz Alpert, Architectural Digest, 1 Apr. 2026
  • That would be pretty punk rock.
    — Alejandra Gularte, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2026
  • This game was not pretty for the home side.
    — James Mirtle, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Keaton didn’t want to be pretty.
    — Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 12 Oct. 2025
  • Hey, where did all those pretty ladies go?
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 5 Sep. 2025
  • But this mist is more than just a pretty scent.
    — Sophia Panych, Allure, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Doesn’t have to be pretty, just tasty.
    — Evan Grant, Dallas Morning News, 20 Jan. 2026
  • Yeah, that seems pretty spot on.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 10 June 2026
  • Sporty-meets-pretty in this flowy skirt.
    — Michelle Rostamian, PEOPLE, 26 Apr. 2026
  • These aren’t just pretty projects.
    — Christopher Elliott, Forbes.com, 25 Jan. 2026
  • As for telling me to stay pretty, what’s that all about?
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 2 May 2026
  • The zone wasn’t pretty, but the Knicks won.
    — Fred Katz, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Like that goal, the B’s game wasn’t pretty.
    — Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 14 Mar. 2026
  • For Williams, the game as a whole wasn’t pretty.
    — Kevin Fishbain, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2025
  • Life is too short not to enjoy pretty things.
    — Heather Bien, Southern Living, 3 May 2026
  • Mesh ballet flats are such a pretty shoe for spring.
    — Kaitlin Clapinski, InStyle, 15 Mar. 2026
  • Ask for a spot on the pretty patio.
    — Sarah Blaskovich, Dallas Morning News, 1 Mar. 2026
  • And nice pretty swing to get the ball out of the ballpark.
    — Jeff Sanders, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Sep. 2025
  • The rest of the group seemed pretty content with that.
    — Robert Annis, Travel + Leisure, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Like a pretty girl with a brilliant mind.
    — Brendan Le, PEOPLE, 9 Apr. 2026
  • And its pretty patio is a dream.
    — Rachel Bernhard, jsonline.com, 22 Oct. 2025
  • This rich and creamy ice cream is the prettiest shade of pink.
    — Kimberly Holland, Southern Living, 16 June 2026
  • Use a pretty mold to impress the guests.
    — Mary Shannon Wells, Southern Living, 8 May 2026
  • Want to spend even more time in this pretty pocket of the state?
    — Katy Spratte Joyce, Midwest Living, 31 Mar. 2026
  • This salad might look too pretty to eat, but don't be shy.
    — Lizzy Briskin, Better Homes & Gardens, 4 Jan. 2026
  • Of course, the new watches don’t just have a pretty face.
    — Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 27 May 2026
  • The chocolate is still good to eat, just not very pretty.
    — Clarissa Brincat, Popular Science, 21 Jan. 2026
  • This fresh summer side is quick, easy, and pretty.
    — Josh Miller, Southern Living, 15 June 2026

pretty

2 of 4 adverb
  • The work is pretty hard.
  • The movie was pretty good but not great.
  • I have to leave pretty soon.
  • The teams are pretty equally matched.
  • She was driving pretty fast.
  • They've accomplished some pretty amazing things.
  • As well as a pretty full bullpen.
    — Ryan Ford, Freep.com, 13 Oct. 2025
  • My skin is pretty glowy and clear.
    — Hannah Coates, Vogue, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Texas is a pretty good place to live.
    — Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 May 2026
  • Seems like a pretty easy choice to me!
    — Ryan Morik Outkick, FOXNews.com, 21 Apr. 2026
  • That sounds like a pretty great day.
    — Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 16 Sep. 2025
  • The first one went pretty well.
    — Sam Joseph, New York Times, 23 June 2026
  • That sounds pretty great to us.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 6 Apr. 2026
  • The four of them make a pretty good team.
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 20 Jan. 2026
  • The ball hit me pretty flush in the cheek.
    — Adam Thompson, CBS News, 14 Apr. 2026
  • Those top four picks are pretty much set.
    — David Troy, FOXNews.com, 23 June 2026
  • Your kids are still pretty young.
    — Outside, 23 Feb. 2026
  • My wife's car is pretty smashed up.
    — Greg Wehner , Tracy Wright, FOXNews.com, 13 Oct. 2025
  • So yeah, pretty wet and cold all week.
    — Rick Hurd, Mercury News, 17 Feb. 2026
  • That curve looks pretty damn good.
    — Eric Siegel, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
  • So, life is pretty busy for the singer.
    — Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 29 Aug. 2025
  • On its face, the card is pretty stacked.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 11 May 2026
  • Yeah, that would be pretty wild.
    — Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 15 Feb. 2026
  • The girls thought that was pretty cool.
    — Sari Hitchins, Parents, 8 Mar. 2026
  • And there’s a pretty good trade-off.
    — Steve Berman, New York Times, 16 June 2026
  • All on top of a pretty large to-do list.
    — Marcy Klipfel, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Alone, that sounds pretty damn good.
    — Rachel Nussbaum, InStyle, 6 Jan. 2026
  • That’s a pretty cool plot twist.
    — Senior Editor, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2026
  • That’s pretty much a pass-through cost.
    — Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 1 Mar. 2026
  • No city has it all, but some come pretty close.
    — Dobrina Zhekova, Travel + Leisure, 16 June 2026

pretty

3 of 4 noun
  • Pretty late in the game for a free agent to be looking for a new ride.
    — Jim Ayello, Indianapolis Star, 14 July 2017
  • For my mom, who still keeps her recipes on index cards, this beyond-pretty box.
    — Meredith Rollins, Redbook, 1 Dec. 2013
  • Everything is wrapped up and bow-tied with a puff pastry shell that's a pretty as any present.
    — Kimberly Holland, Southern Living, 1 Dec. 2025
  • Sustainable and oh-so-pretty, this skirt was made to accentuate curves.
    — Dobrina Zhekova, Travel + Leisure, 13 Mar. 2023
  • Pretty says he's known for having a sense of humor on his spots, and people seeing it all over the country wouldn't be aware of that.
    — Luke O'Neil, Esquire, 29 June 2017
  • One of the most exclusive sporting events in the world, tickets to the Masters will cost you a pretty.
    — Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 7 Apr. 2026
  • Stretched along a river in the heart of the Netherlands, the town of Wageningen is not postcard-pretty.
    — Marta Zaraska, Discover Magazine, 13 Mar. 2019
  • That was 2013 and the beginning of the time when models who weren’t cookie-cutter-pretty were getting booked.
    — Amanda Fitzsimons, Glamour, 1 June 2018
  • It was founded by the owner of your pretty, jungly hotel, Inle Princess Resort, and feels more like a utopian commune than a school.
    — Hanya Yanagihara, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Apr. 2017
  • Most people seem to agree — the bartenders have a habit of making the drinks in a pretty row at the bar, in the style of the Irish coffee pros at Buena Vista Cafe.
    — Soleil Ho, SFChronicle.com, 29 Aug. 2019
  • Pretty and petite with a pixie haircut, wearing jeans and a navy blazer, Petry spoke in lengthy, didactic sentences that seemed more suited to a university professor than the leader of a populist party.
    — Yardena Schwartz, Newsweek, 9 Mar. 2017

pretty

4 of 4 verb
  • She prettied the cake with icing, sprinkles, and nuts.
  • The reporters picked at it, concerned about getting the facts straight and looking to pretty up their now-public images.
    — Douglas Perry, OregonLive.com, 14 June 2017
  • Pretty hard to believe anything significant is in the works with that sort of exodus.
    — Hayden Dingman, PCWorld, 9 June 2017
  • From have resurrected the game, prettying it up a bit, and will release it in the United States later this year.
    — Brad Chacos, PCWorld, 15 June 2018
  • There’s no better time to pretty up your porch than the dead of summer, and this planter, combined with the season’s ample sunshine, warm temps, and the shrub or flowers of your choosing.
    — Maggie Horton, PEOPLE, 24 June 2026
  • Pretty much ideal weather for grilling, walking and running, or any outdoor activity tonight and tomorrow.
    — Greg Porter, Washington Post, 1 June 2017
  • Pretty Polish This vibrant Rose Bowl pink makes the ideal shade for transitioning into spring.
    — Stephanie Granada, Southern Living, 1 May 2017
  • Thus, the strategy was designed to produce either a win with virtually no GOP concessions, or a government shutdown that could pretty cleanly be blamed on Democrats.
    — Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, 17 Jan. 2018
  • One of the ideas envisioned by Vivo is to take in a full body scan of a person and then feed that information to a beautification AI that would more intelligently and proportionately pretty you up.
    — Vlad Savov, The Verge, 27 June 2018
  • Although there’s been a little effort to pretty it up, like the series of murals installed in 2013 that were intended to capture the spirit of the track, it’s been doomed since around 2007, when Governor Eliot Spitzer proposed shutting it down.
    — Henry Kornaros, Curbed, 26 June 2026

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