How to Use sardonic in a Sentence

sardonic

adjective
  • The movie is a sardonic look at modern life.
  • The time to be sardonic had passed.
    — Eddie Huang, Curbed, 9 Oct. 2025
  • A lot of actors could have played him as a sardonic quipster.
    — James Poniewozik, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Not because that sardonic video prologue begged them to do so.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 26 Jan. 2024
  • If nothing else, this waltz demonstrates his taste for the sardonic, and wry.
    — David Allen, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2023
  • But for me too many of the poems are either trivial or sardonic.
    — Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 17 Mar. 2023
  • The song makes such a sardonic point about his relationship, with the guy in the house.
    — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 4 May 2024
  • If sardonic lyrics are your thing, McMurtry has to be on your radar.
    — idahostatesman, 20 July 2017
  • There is a mood to these stories, sardonic and anguished in turn, that gets under your skin.
    — Emma Alpern, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
  • That’s perfect because your games all to seem to have a bit of that sardonic, dry humor in them.
    — Patrick Shanley, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 June 2019
  • Millions more cram the sidewalks to clap, bang drums, and wave sardonic homemade signs.
    — Frederick Dreier, Outside Online, 9 Nov. 2024
  • There is tragedy lurking beneath the sardonic humor of these works.
    — Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 15 Dec. 2023
  • If this were a Hitchcock film, the shooting might put a sardonic cap on the drama.
    — Lloyd Sachs, chicagotribune.com, 16 May 2017
  • Our sardonic superhero needs to get the timing just right to crash through the sunroof and beat up the bad guys.
    — Rhett Allain, Wired, 23 Dec. 2020
  • Benioff, who wears his hair in a Morrissey quiff, is the more sardonic one.
    — TIME.com, 30 June 2017
  • The game has the aesthetic and charm of a sardonic graphic novel.
    — E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2021
  • Though sardonic in essence, the close to two-minute scene portrayed in the ad has resounded with some doctors.
    — María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post, 28 July 2022
  • Meg’s lips rose in a sardonic smile, the force of her stare intensifying.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 10 July 2024
  • Burnett seemed happy to have a legendary rock figure to quote with as sardonic a sense of humor as his own.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 13 May 2025
  • The 5-foot-1 Clary sported a beret and a sardonic smile as Cpl.
    — Lynn Elber, USA TODAY, 18 Nov. 2022
  • Bond was how Fleming saw himself; the sardonic, cruel mouth; the hard, tight-skinned face.
    — Paul Duncan, Vulture, 24 May 2024
  • Bush has a wide-eyed openness and Navia something more wryly sardonic, and the contrast works well.
    — Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 May 2022
  • Then there are the art students, mostly YouTubing their sardonic take on art.
    — Momus, WIRED, 24 Apr. 2007
  • Bill’s ghost will be there making sardonic jokes and Regina’s will be there too, talking about her latest boyfriend.
    — Mary Schmich, chicagotribune.com, 25 Dec. 2020
  • The records that resonated with me most were eccentric, often sardonic in tone, and even a bit haunting.
    — Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 21 Dec. 2021
  • However, the script errs a bit too far on the side of sardonic to be taken seriously as true social satire.
    — Katie Walsh, Detroit Free Press, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Laughable, yes, but in the deeply sardonic, resigned way that one looks atrocities in the face and can muster no other response.
    — Naveen Kumar, Variety, 3 Dec. 2022
  • The movie also takes a sardonic, sidelong look at the problems that arise when the main motive for health care providers is the profit motive.
    — Gary Thompson, Philly.com, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Even in the dramatic context, Bel-Air could use more of that sardonic spirit.
    — Darren Franich, EW.com, 10 Feb. 2022
  • Kirsh’s shock of white hair and dry, sardonic air give Olyphant refreshing distance from the upright lawmen he’s known for.
    — Alison Herman, Variety, 5 Aug. 2025

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