How to Use sectarian in a Sentence

sectarian

adjective
  • The country was split along sectarian lines.
  • The sectarian pull has a body count.
    — Kyle P. Edmonds, STAT, 9 Apr. 2026
  • The program is free and non-sectarian and aims to give kids an adult role model who may help to fill a void in their lives.
    — Jessica Tzikas, Sun Sentinel, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Civil movements tried to do away with the sectarian mould of politics.
    — Nabil Salih, Time, 4 Dec. 2025
  • But most display the looming faces of politicians from decades-old sectarian parties.
    — Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, 13 May 2022
  • Every event here has a sectarian angle.
    — Ben Wedeman, CNN Money, 30 Nov. 2025
  • This is to say that a small but very loud part of the fandom (and its antis) has broken into ugly sectarian warfare.
    — E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 23 Feb. 2026
  • All of that is bound to deepen the fault lines that make regional tensions and sectarian conflict more likely in the long run.
    — Ioana Emy Matesan, The Conversation, 9 Apr. 2026
  • While the movie shows glimpses of the violent sectarian upheaval of that time, there’s plenty of joy to spare as young Hill comes of age.
    — Matt Donnelly, Variety, 13 Sep. 2021
  • Lebanon’s fractured system of government makes those fears of civil war or sectarian strife more potent.
    — Mick Krever, CNN Money, 6 June 2026
  • Add to all of that leaders who stoke the conflict, and disagreements over the simplest things can become almost sectarian.
    — New York Times, 26 Dec. 2021
  • The agreement ended decades of sectarian strife by, among other things, creating an open border on the island.
    — New York Times, 7 May 2022
  • Just a week ago, eight people were killed and since January, more than 40 people have died in sectarian killings.
    — Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2023
  • During the civil war, the Army splintered along sectarian lines, and, for a time, that consensus collapsed.
    — Euan Ward, New Yorker, 29 May 2026
  • While some in Lebanon voted last week to break with the past, most still voted for sectarian parties, an indication of fear and fatigue.
    — Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 May 2022
  • Syrians are keenly aware of this sectarian challenge.
    — Salma Al-Shami, Foreign Affairs, 5 Dec. 2025
  • As the current amnesty law was drafted, the country's deep sectarian divisions were clear in the legislature.
    — ABC News, 5 June 2026
  • The standoff touches on sectarian fault lines that crisscross streets, neighborhoods and the government.
    — Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2021
  • Eight of the council’s 10 members are chosen by sectarian leaders via the cabinet.
    — New York Times, 28 Oct. 2021
  • What followed, in broad terms, was insurgency, sectarian war and then the rise of the Islamic State group.
    — Andrew Latham, The Conversation, 22 Apr. 2026
  • Every dismissive physician who made a patient feel small created a recruitment event for sectarian medicine.
    — Kyle P. Edmonds, STAT, 9 Apr. 2026
  • Creating a better judicial mechanism will do much to tamp down sectarian tensions.
    — Salma Al-Shami, Foreign Affairs, 5 Dec. 2025
  • The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case about whether parents may use state education money to pay for sectarian schools.
    — Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 9 Dec. 2021
  • Fighting along ethnic and sectarian lines has plagued CAR since 2013.
    — Hannah Ritchie, CNN, 5 May 2022
  • The conflict drew in multiple militias, many of them sectarian, plus Palestinian factions.
    — ABC News, 5 June 2026
  • Yemen has been mired for more than a decade in a civil war that involves a complex interplay of sectarian and tribal grievances and the involvement of regional powers.
    — Fatma Khaled, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. 2026
  • Yemen has been mired for more than a decade in a civil war that involves a complex interplay of sectarian and tribal grievances and the involvement of regional powers.
    — Arkansas Online, 8 Feb. 2026
  • The area was still subject to the sectarian social divisions across Northern Ireland, but, by the late nineties, was spared much of the violence.
    — Jane Ferguson, The New Yorker, 22 June 2023
  • The Good Friday agreement, which helped end decades of sectarian violence, was reached in 1998.
    — Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 10 Oct. 2023
  • And the protests were about how grossly the country was being mismanaged, but also that a majority of Lebanese people, across all sectarian groups, were fed up.
    — Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2026

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