How to Use reactionary in a Sentence

reactionary

adjective
  • The types of things that tend to go beyond just reactionary anger.
    — David Clarey, Journal Sentinel, 1 Nov. 2024
  • Who better to lead it than the princess of the reactionary right herself?
    — Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, 10 Nov. 2020
  • What choice would a young reactionary iconoclast have but to veer right?
    — Los Angeles Times, 9 July 2025
  • The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 20 May 2026
  • What’s up with reactionary old French screen legends?
    — Benjamin Svetkey, HollywoodReporter, 3 Jan. 2026
  • This is about the same old reactionary politics of spite and self-defeat.
    — Kyle Whitmire, al, 16 Apr. 2020
  • All kinds of other reactionary social ideas spread.
    — David Frum, The Atlantic, 10 June 2026
  • The revanchist canon this produces can be reactionary in its own way.
    — Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 25 July 2022
  • The real truth is that no one should care about what reactionary, overwrought critics have to say.
    — Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 5 Aug. 2025
  • But now, having spread, the new reactionary thought seems to have lost some of its momentum.
    — James Duesterberg, New Yorker, 18 Feb. 2026
  • And, frankly, a level of patience that would make Job look reactionary, to do it.
    — Chuck Yarborough, cleveland, 8 Jan. 2020
  • Even worse, of course, are the decisions the reactionary bloc has handed down.
    — Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 2 May 2023
  • For decades, the opinion pages were safe spaces for white, reactionary writers.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 10 June 2020
  • The reactionary influence of these ideas doesn't stop at dating, though.
    — Vicky Spratt, refinery29.com, 21 Jan. 2020
  • But a few good votes that are close to my heart do not blind my eyes to a fundamentally reactionary record.
    — Chicago Tribune Staff, chicagotribune.com, 6 July 2018
  • The police and the courts are really set up to be reactionary, not proactive.
    — Jennifer Emily, Dallas News, 11 Aug. 2019
  • Imagine the nightmare that presents for a defense, which must go into full reactionary mode against this.
    — Andy Benoit, SI.com, 13 June 2018
  • In a mass of players, the Wolverines fired a reactionary shot that looked destined to score.
    — Matt Nevala, Anchorage Daily News, 25 May 2018
  • The demise of the style was spurred by a reactionary resurgence of Classicism.
    — Regina Cole, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2023
  • Afraid the reactionary elements of her party still hold last year’s stay-at-home orders against her.
    — al, 16 July 2021
  • But Warren's push is more than just a reactionary move, there's some data behind it as well.
    — Ali Vitali, NBC News, 3 Feb. 2020
  • Dreher is well aware that this reactionary outlook strikes many people as ludicrous.
    — Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Many rap fans took to social media to bemoan the rise of reactionary figures in rap media.
    — Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 12 Apr. 2023
  • But the more reactionary elements appear to have the upper hand.
    — Miriam Berger, Washington Post, 15 Sep. 2023
  • These days rebel turf is on the right, and to be radical is, increasingly, to be reactionary.
    — Elinor Burkett, Harper's BAZAAR, 3 Feb. 2017
  • In the second stage, reactionary forces try to roll back women’s gains in the economic and social spheres.
    — Aseem Prakash, Washington Post, 8 Feb. 2018
  • These are readers of the reactionary right tradition that comes out of Europe.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 18 June 2024
  • And Land, in recent years, has reëmerged as one of the most influential reactionary thinkers of our time.
    — James Duesterberg, New Yorker, 18 Feb. 2026
  • That reactionary nature became clear to Frankel from the beginning of the process.
    — Nick Romano, EW.com, 19 Sep. 2022
  • However, the signing had been in the works for weeks and was not a reactionary move in the wake of Sjöberg’s injury.
    — Daniel Boniface, The Denver Post, 14 Mar. 2017

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