How to Use sine qua non in a Sentence

sine qua non

noun
  • Patience is a sine qua non for this job.
  • The singing actors in opera do well to use that tool kit, too—but their sine qua non is the voice.
    — Matthew Gurewitsch, Air Mail, 21 Feb. 2026
  • For decades, the triad has been the sine qua non of nuclear force structure.
    — Jessica T. Mathews, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2020
  • And as far as the president is concerned, this is the sine qua non of a lasting peace in the region.
    — CBS News, 26 Nov. 2023
  • Emotional, as well as factual, honesty is the sine qua non of a memoir.
    — Melanie Thernstrom, New York Times, 17 Apr. 2018
  • Cool nights are a sine qua non for producing the chemical reactions that coax leaf color out of hiding.
    — Anthony R. Wood, Philly.com, 26 Oct. 2017
  • Knowing how to use one’s physical instrument is a sine qua non of both modeling and acting.
    — New York Times, 10 Nov. 2021
  • Stable money is a sine qua non of stable, prosperous, free societies.
    — Eric Grover, National Review, 19 Sep. 2020
  • Still, none of these titles is without challenges for a company that has made winning best picture the sine qua non of its movie ambitions.
    — Stephen Galloway, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Nov. 2019
  • The image of Toyotas and Datsuns — soon rebranded as Nissans — went from quirky to sine qua non.
    — Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2026
  • In the Northeast elevation is the sine qua non for such a deluge; rain condenses from rising air, and mountain slopes give air a lift.
    — Anthony R. Wood, Philly.com, 31 Aug. 2017
  • If cultural similarity were the sine qua non of syncing up, then homogenous rosters would be the recipe for success.
    — Michael Morris, Time, 1 July 2026
  • The research team determined that the finger holes had been made with a flint tool so precise that the holes could be sealed with a fingertip, the sine qua non of wind instruments.
    — Franz Lidz, New York Times, 28 Aug. 2023
  • While the interplay and performance of each member of this quartet are key, Cumberbatch’s Phil is the film’s sine qua non.
    — Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2021
  • Graduating from Harvard, contrary to what its students and administrators may think, is not the sine qua non of a good life.
    — Heather Mac Donald, WSJ, 13 June 2019
  • So key is their role in combating parasitic helminths that their presence is the sine qua non of diagnosing an invasive worm infection.
    — Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 1 Mar. 2015
  • Replacing entrenched fantasies with reality also remains the sine qua non for advancing any prospects for peace.
    — WSJ, 10 July 2018
  • For Ruth, those games—gambling at the casinos and racetrack, drinking in the saloons, enjoying nights at the brothels—were the sine qua non of spring training.
    — Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Apr. 2020
  • North Korea sees obtaining such a capability as the sine qua non of its security against attack.
    — Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, 14 Dec. 2017
  • That impressive tally of awards season wins leads inevitably to the subject of curation, which is, after all, the raison d’etre and sine qua non of all film festivals.
    — Steven Gaydos, Variety, 12 May 2022
  • And some significant part of her loneliness came not from being single but from living in a world that regards a romantic partner as the sine qua non of happy adulthood.
    — Zoë Heller, The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2022
  • This has become Haugen’s emphatic sine qua non, her non-negotiable clause in every contract, whether business or personal.
    — Gabriela Riccardi, Quartz, 6 July 2023
  • Fourth — and maybe most importantly — NIH funding is the sine qua non of success in the academic medical world.
    — Mark G. Shrime, STAT, 15 Sep. 2021
  • But our justice system is the sine qua non for a free society because, for a conviction to be valid, the answer to both questions must be yes, and established as such convincingly.
    — Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 30 June 2021
  • Lichtenstein got rid of the painterly patina that had been almost a sine qua non of avant-garde art since the Abstract Expressionists of the late nineteen-forties.
    — The New Yorker, 21 July 2021
  • The pivot for Fox News required it to fully commit to pushing conspiracy theories, the sine qua non of the Trumpian mindset.
    — Douglas Perry, OregonLive.com, 1 Nov. 2017
  • Many other analysts on Wall Street see the reusability of Starship as the sine qua non of the company’s long-term profitability.
    — Tobias Burns, CNBC, 1 July 2026
  • For those actors who consider crying to be the sine qua non of their art, a sorrowful biography offers a distinct advantage in the Method acting sweepstakes.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 24 Jan. 2024
  • During these years—and for the first time in American history—a college degree became the sine qua non of middle-class stability and self-sufficiency.
    — Jonathan Zimmerman, The New York Review of Books, 17 June 2020
  • Under identity politics, so much favored by the Democratic Party, diversity is the sine qua non.
    — Joseph Epstein, WSJ, 30 Dec. 2020

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