How to Use reticence in a Sentence

reticence

noun
  • There's a lot of reticence to step up again right now.
    — Dana Taylor, USA Today, 28 May 2026
  • Some of that earlier reticence may have to do with the way she was raised.
    — Anna Silman, The Cut, 29 Mar. 2018
  • Snap isn’t alone in its reticence to release data on time spent in its app.
    — Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2022
  • This is a funny riff on the reticence and mistrust that's out there.
    — Andy Hoglund, EW.com, 4 Apr. 2021
  • His reticence drove a wedge between him and his three closest friends.
    — Jordan Runtagh, People.com, 8 Apr. 2025
  • Where does the reticence to call yourself a critic come from?
    — Vulture, 8 Aug. 2023
  • DeRozan may be a monster on the court, but it’s cloaked in reticence.
    — Julia Poe, chicagotribune.com, 17 Feb. 2022
  • But that reticence may prove a recipe for long-run stagnation.
    — The Economist, 12 Dec. 2019
  • Gone is any reticence around the group’s existence or its name.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2023
  • The reticence about the number of robots is kind of part of the story.
    — John Koetsier, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
  • So this is a plea for reticence, or at least a greater recognition of its value.
    — Editorial Board Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 15 Nov. 2020
  • There’s a similar reticence to cut loose for a few other songs that could use it.
    — Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 18 June 2018
  • That reticence may also be a function of the choice to be anonymous.
    — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 19 Nov. 2019
  • The reticence may have been because of the unusual terms of the sale.
    — Rumaan Alam, The New Republic, 1 Apr. 2020
  • This reticence did little to dampen the bonhomie of the crowds.
    — John Leland, New York Times, 30 May 2018
  • At Salem, the rage room initially sparked some reticence too.
    — Nicole Gull McElroy, Fortune, 10 Nov. 2021
  • Bit by bit, and then in a series of giant leaps, that reticence to engage has faded.
    — Alex Altman, Time, 28 Sep. 2017
  • This could be a symptom of the industry’s reticence to leave its comfort zone.
    — Les Borsai, SPIN, 26 June 2023
  • There’s a reticence to give schools the money needed to do what everybody wants.
    — Tribune News Service, oregonlive, 1 Sep. 2020
  • The $100 pay outweighed any reticence Dlin had about the job.
    — Edward Lee, Baltimore Sun, 6 Sep. 2023
  • And, in fairness to Kim, the reticence is not all down to Pyongyang.
    — Paula Hancocks, CNN, 28 Oct. 2022
  • Take the two pages where Dyer writes about his father’s extreme reticence about his own past.
    — James Wood, New Yorker, 14 July 2025
  • There has been the boom, then there was the bust, there was a lot reticence to spend money again on digital media.
    — Eric Johnson, Recode, 23 Aug. 2018
  • But that reticence is also what enables men like Mark Halperin.
    — Maureen O'Connor, The Cut, 30 Oct. 2017
  • Estela couldn’t understand François’ reticence and hopped on her bike and took off down the hill.
    — Jason Wilson, Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2022
  • The drinks had warmed him, and the heat of Sichuanese peppercorns seemed to stir him from his usual reticence.
    — Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker, 17 June 2019
  • There is the taint of stigma and a reticence to talk openly about this kind of reproductive loss.
    — Tara Shafer, Redbook, 19 June 2018
  • There are still concerns about the reticence of customers to have their data in the hands of 3rd parties.
    — Annie Brown, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2021
  • Next to the reigning crassness of our day, that sort of reticence has a seductive allure.
    — Doug Henwood, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019
  • Democrats know Trump’s reticence about Epstein has played into their hands.
    — Niall Stanage, The Hill, 18 Nov. 2025

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