How to Use scarlet letter in a Sentence

scarlet letter

noun
  • The scarlet letter should never be about race to begin with.
    — Doug Melville, Forbes.com, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Was the woman who had been branded with a scarlet letter as scary as they’d been led to believe?
    — Helena Andrews-Dyer, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2023
  • De-shame debt Debt, whether from student loans or credit cards, can feel like a scarlet letter.
    — Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2024
  • Anything lower than an A can be akin to a scarlet letter for a restaurant.
    — Cindy Carcamo, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2023
  • The goal is to help those in need, not to brand people with some sort of a scarlet letter that could then trigger them to lash out.
    — Byjohn Cohen, ABC News, 7 July 2022
  • And yet even from the desk of his Emmy-winning studio show, his empty ring finger is waved like a scarlet letter for all to see.
    — Mitch Goldich, SI.com, 13 June 2018
  • Truth-telling and acts of integrity beget the scarlet letter of party disloyalty.
    — Arkansas Online, 6 Mar. 2021
  • The two medical students were surprised that in Chicago, adding ketchup could earn someone a scarlet letter.
    — Michael Loria, USA TODAY, 13 Apr. 2024
  • For so long, the D-word has been treated like a modern scarlet letter—a mark of shame rather than a life stage that millions of people go through each year.
    — Jenna Ryu, SELF, 14 Nov. 2025
  • The digital scarlet letter means a Google search ensures your worst mistake is the first thing an employer or landlord sees.
    — Chicago Tribune, 1 May 2026
  • In some ways, the shift was accidental, as working in diversity became a scarlet letter.
    — Doug Melville, Forbes.com, 5 July 2026
  • On the road to Hangzhou, officers at two highway exits saw his digital scarlet letter and stopped him from taking the exit.
    — Paul Mozur, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2020
  • His outsider status as a hunchback is instead a costume that presumably serves as scarlet letter or Star of David.
    — Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2025
  • Among many Jews, simply voting Republican can feel like wearing a scarlet letter.
    — Caren Leven, Baltimore Sun, 10 Aug. 2025
  • The drug war swept like fire through barangays, where any stray remark could earn you the scarlet letter of the Philippine National Police.
    — Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Being a divorcée cuts both ways on Lynn's classic takedown of the unfair double standards for women who dare to wear the scarlet letter of singledom.
    — Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 14 Sep. 2021
  • If several people take this action against you, a warning appears on your profile, Clubhouse’s version of a scarlet letter.
    — Steven Levy, Wired, 17 Mar. 2021
  • So the Patriots as an organization have to realize this scarlet letter is sticking right now.
    — Armando Salguero Outkick, FOXNews.com, 11 May 2026
  • So the government has labeled the company a supply-chain risk, effectively plastering it with a scarlet letter.
    — Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 3 Mar. 2026
  • But, more importantly, Avila’s ability to speak English was seen as an asset instead of as a scarlet letter.
    — Gustavo Solis, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2019
  • However, at the time, the film's withering reception proved to be something of a scarlet letter for Berkley's burgeoning movie career.
    — Edward Segarra, USA Today, 11 Nov. 2025
  • Hayes and Jackson have already served their decades in prison, but their felonies remain on their records — a scarlet letter that continues to affect every aspect of their lives, even in freedom.
    — oregonlive, 18 Mar. 2021
  • But, more importantly, Avila’s ability to speak English was seen as an asset instead of a scarlet letter.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Sep. 2019
  • For seasoning, sprinkle in such themes as the fragility of reputation and the indelible stain of an Internet scarlet letter.
    — Peter Marks, Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2019
  • But even those reactionaries to the shifting sensibilities are poised to arrive late at the party or have their shifts come across as insincere or forced to wear the scarlet letter of sellout.
    — Paul Fitzgerald, Rolling Stone, 5 Mar. 2024
  • But when someone leaves, the community labels them an 'apostate' – the scarlet letter of the FLDS.
    — Lauren Lantry, ABC News, 22 June 2023
  • In other school districts, like Warwick, kids whose parents fell behind on payments are given cold sandwiches — what some call the scarlet letter of the cafeteria world.
    — Kara Baskin, BostonGlobe.com, 13 June 2019
  • Old New England wasn’t all scarlet letters, witchcraft trials, and theocratic socialism.
    — Brian T. Allen, National Review, 19 July 2025
  • In the modern tech age, that record has a way of following people around long afterward, creating a lifetime scarlet letter out of a youthful arrest, Levin explained.
    — Eric Levenson, CNN Money, 30 May 2026
  • Twitter Blue check marks have become a sort of scarlet letter on the platform, and subscribers are often teased for purchasing their verification and accused of clout chasing.
    — Kalhan Rosenblatt, NBC News, 5 Apr. 2023

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