How to Use sobering in a Sentence

sobering

adjective
  • His death is a sobering reminder of the dangers of mountaineering.
  • So the sobering book is on the way?
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 25 June 2026
  • Still, the past few days have been sobering.
    — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 5 Aug. 2025
  • The sobering matter has a tinge of irony.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
  • But that fact has never been more sobering than in his death.
    — Lucy Ford, TIME, 21 Oct. 2024
  • But the lessons drawn even from success should be sobering.
    — Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
  • But on the ground in Afghanistan, the news is far more sobering.
    — Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Aug. 2019
  • His first days in office were sobering.
    — Andy Sheehan, CBS News, 15 Apr. 2026
  • The results, one year on, are sobering.
    — Shivaram Rajgopal, Forbes.com, 24 May 2026
  • Their most sobering message was that the world still hasn’t seen the worst of it.
    — John Branch, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2020
  • But a new report shines light on the sobering fact that we still a long way to go.
    — Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The data from deaths due to cold weather are even more sobering.
    — Cory Franklin, Chicago Tribune, 28 July 2025
  • And those numbers are sobering.
    — Matthew Kayser, USA Today, 10 Feb. 2026
  • This week’s Davos confab is sure to be more sobering than most.
    — Jennifer Duggan, Time, 15 Jan. 2023
  • So the actual death rate is (and should be) much more sobering.
    — Star Tribune, 9 Dec. 2020
  • Getting big, fast There is a sobering side to all of this as well.
    — Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 16 Aug. 2025
  • But in all that data he’s been parsing, two sobering threads have emerged.
    — Jen Chaney, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2024
  • And for a sobering dose of caution, thank the Dodgers, still hot on their spikes.
    — Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Sep. 2021
  • That’s a sobering counterweight to the glossy brochures.
    — Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 23 May 2026
  • That’s a sobering counterweight to the glossy brochures.
    — Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 22 May 2026
  • And, the numbers paint a sobering picture.
    — Angelica Leicht, CBS News, 17 Nov. 2025
  • In that sense, the show has a unity that is sobering and inspiring.
    — Julian Bell, The New York Review of Books, 20 July 2023
  • Still, the timeline tells a sobering story.
    — Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 3 Mar. 2026
  • In a sobering turn of events, Elon Musk prepares to eat his own words.
    — WSJ, 4 Oct. 2022
  • The picture for the industry since then has been more sobering.
    — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 16 Jan. 2026
  • Thursday was a full circle moment, in the most sobering of ways.
    — Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 31 Oct. 2025
  • Yet the film is rooted in a sobering grasp of the trauma that can be the flip side of triumph.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 6 Oct. 2024
  • The data tell a sobering story.
    — Elaine Gantz Berman, Denver Post, 25 Oct. 2025
  • The data tells a sobering story.
    — Fabienne Perlov, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Apr. 2026
  • The sobering analysis is not new.
    — Ishani Desai, Sacbee.com, 19 Nov. 2025

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