How to Use scornful in a Sentence

scornful

adjective
  • He's scornful of anyone who disagrees with his political beliefs.
  • Not in his scornful voice, but sad.
    — Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
  • Back to the estate, heaped huge and black and scornful against the starless sky.
    — Lauren Groff, The New Yorker, 27 Apr. 2021
  • Gideon trails off, caught up in his pitying and scornful thoughts about his former tenants.
    — Jon Ronson, GQ, 22 June 2017
  • Again and again his scornful remarks cut you in half, again and again his laughter pulls the rug from under you.
    — Claire-Louise Bennett, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022
  • In a scornful voice, flat with despair, Charlotte told her not to be ridiculous.
    — Tessa Hadley, The New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2022
  • All the scornful gazes of my schoolmates when Doc started to pick me up from campus had been worth it.
    — Literary Hub, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Jack is scornful of any local band that’s even rumored to be signing to a major label deal.
    — Carolyn Kellogg, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Dec. 2022
  • His medium was the linocut print—clean, strong, and scornful of embellishment.
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Not even the pork choppers were as arrogant and scornful of voting rights as the current mob.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 11 May 2026
  • Her mother had left, and Watt had to figure out next steps under the scornful eyes of her father.
    — WIRED, 17 Oct. 2023
  • The scornful cat looked him carefully in the eye, still holding that same unhidden venom.
    — Autumn Blodgett, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Aug. 2011
  • With the scornful wave spreading across social media, Marvel waded in to stem the tide.
    — Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Feb. 2025
  • That assertion generates a ripple of scornful noise in the theater.
    — Lawrence Specker | [email protected], al, 19 Apr. 2020
  • Twelve years ago, while serving as lieutenant governor, Newsom was scornful.
    — Dan Walters, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 May 2026
  • That remark prompted a number of scornful responses from critics.
    — New York Times, 20 July 2021
  • Yes, dedicated Coors or Jack Daniels drinkers are scornful of other brands.
    — Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 25 Mar. 2017
  • Those defenses have drawn a scornful response from American observers.
    — Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, 8 Feb. 2023
  • Tribunals have been appointed, and Coriolanus’ scornful elitism strikes them as too heavy a price for his military protection.
    — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 1 July 2026
  • There are good reasons to be scornful of this Machiavellian market—and better reasons to double down on the fight to make carbon credits count.
    — Stephen Lezak, The New Republic, 9 Nov. 2021
  • Atletico did not believe this was a serious attempt to sign the player, and reacted with more angry and scornful social media posts.
    — Dermot Corrigan, New York Times, 23 June 2026
  • Gorsuch writes clear opinions that are easy to read, but without the sarcastic jabs and scornful put-downs that were characteristic of Scalia.
    — David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2019
  • The artist’s killing will always frame his reception, but there are six million earlier deaths that haunt his agitated, scornful, hard-to-shake pictures.
    — Jason Farago, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2023
  • That drew scornful responses from legal scholars and even some pushback from the White House lawyer handling the Russia case.
    — Albert R. Hunt, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Dec. 2017
  • Screenshots and copies of the complaint spread far and wide became fodder for the already overwhelming fire of scornful messages and posts towards the women, a lawyer for one of the women says.
    — Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2024
  • Some styles are scornful tags given by others (helicopter), designations worn with pride (gentle), and some are somewhat tongue-in-cheek (looking at you, scrunchy).
    — Elizabeth Chang, Washington Post, 2 Feb. 2023
  • And with a scornful undercurrent at the fact that Charli apparently stole Johannes out from under her.
    — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 24 Jan. 2026
  • The scornful tone throughout the debate even crept into the candidates’ closing statements, which are usually optimistic.
    — Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin, New York Times, 6 Feb. 2016
  • Second, despite this rapid progress, polls show that Peruvians are unusually scornful of their politicians and their democracy.
    — The Economist, 10 Oct. 2019
  • Faced with angry alumni and a scornful public, Nikias managed to settle the crisis with calls for more transparency and tougher ethical standards.
    — Thomas Curwen, latimes.com, 26 May 2018

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