How to Use purportedly in a Sentence

purportedly

adverb
  • The post shows a step-by-step process for how canola oil is purportedly made.
    — Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2022
  • Uber was breached to its core, purportedly by an 18-year-old.
    — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 19 Sep. 2022
  • Cerf purportedly locked himself in the car when the men approached.
    — David Matthews, New York Daily News, 20 June 2024
  • Sjoberg purportedly sat on Andrew's lap, while the prince placed a hand on her breast.
    — Edward Segarra, USA Today, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Online videos from Qom purportedly showed fires in the street overnight.
    — Jon Gambrell, Los Angeles Times, 3 Jan. 2026
  • Other parts of the video that are purportedly from the same event do show money being thrown in the air on dancers.
    — Matt Young, Chron, 23 Dec. 2020
  • Neon is also the gas of choice in the comb attachment, which is meant for the scalp and may purportedly help with hair health.
    — Deanna Pai, Vogue, 20 Jan. 2026
  • The round that struck Brown's skull was purportedly the one that killed him, and the other two shots were not mapped out by the lawyers.
    — Jake Dima, Washington Examiner, 27 Apr. 2021
  • The compact gadget warms from the top, which ensures that each new wipe is warm and also purportedly doesn’t dry out the wipes.
    — Maya Polton, Parents, 4 Aug. 2023
  • The gun that Cotton purportedly used to take his own life has been confirmed to be the weapon used in the homicide.
    — Claudia Levens, jsonline.com, 9 Mar. 2026
  • Paris Hilton will purportedly celebrate her nuptials over the course of three days.
    — Allie Volpe, Vogue, 3 Sep. 2021
  • There are six of them, but only two are still in use, and the one where the restaurant was purportedly located is not one of them.
    — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 1 Apr. 2026
  • These books that were purportedly trying to be helpful offered a lot of advice, a lot of rules, and a lot of judgment.
    — Hannah Howard, Bon Appétit, 17 Feb. 2022
  • In any case, someone at the gathering purportedly sat on the dessert, crushing the pillowy pile of meringue, fruit and cream.
    — Jessica Battilana, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 July 2021
  • At that point, Ellis purportedly was holding her phone in front of her chest, the singer testified.
    — Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 26 Aug. 2025
  • But now this is changing, at least at the World Cup, purportedly for player safety.
    — Joshua P. Cohen, Forbes.com, 12 June 2026
  • The latter Tom purportedly sends it to all his friends during the holidays.
    — Li Goldstein, Bon Appétit, 27 Jan. 2023
  • But Dixon purportedly denied wrongdoing, and the boy didn’t come forward with his claims then.
    — Ramon Antonio Vargas | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 23 Sep. 2020
  • Aydın had purportedly pocketed some $80 million of it…and seems to have burned through all of it in just three years.
    — Moisés Naím, Literary Hub, 27 Oct. 2025
  • Many of them took the opportunity to clear their name or promote or purportedly launch their own chocolatey treats.
    — Melina Khan, USA Today, 1 Apr. 2026
  • What is purportedly an act of support became a symbol of frustration.
    — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Oct. 2025
  • In one of these instances, Duggar purportedly asked the child repeatedly to sit on his lap.
    — Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 25 Mar. 2026
  • As noted above, the video purportedly shows off a purple iPhone 14 Pro.
    — Jacob Siegal, BGR, 25 Aug. 2022
  • The video then purportedly shows Anthony letting go of Brown, who picks up the bag and heads for the exit.
    — Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 26 May 2023
  • That’s when Meyer chose not to fly home with his young team and purportedly stayed back in Ohio to, ahem, visit his grandkids.
    — Mike Bianchi, orlandosentinel.com, 16 Dec. 2021
  • The protests erupted after a video was shared on social media that purportedly showed the killing of a civilian by the anti-robbery squad.
    — Elisha Bala-Gbogbo, Bloomberg.com, 17 Oct. 2020
  • The blind man would purportedly die in a Chicago blizzard in 1929.
    — Jonny Auping, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
  • Two days later, Laundrie left his parents’ home, purportedly for a hike in the park where his remains were found more than a month later.
    — Dom Calicchio, Fox News, 24 Oct. 2021
  • OnePlus’ second-gen watch will purportedly get up to 100 hours on a single charge.
    — Victoria Song, The Verge, 26 Feb. 2024
  • Any time is a good time to unload a purportedly cursed space, but the current owner of the main sanctuary may really need the money.
    — Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 11 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'purportedly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: