How to Use sound out in a Sentence

sound out

verb
  • Agents who cling to yesterday's talking points could sound out of touch.
    — Angela Palo, Forbes.com, 20 Feb. 2026
  • Voices that sound out loud… people will think that’s insane.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Sometimes also voices that sound out loud.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 12 Nov. 2025
  • The change is best known for promoting the use of phonics approaches to reading, teaching kids to sound out letters and put them together in words.
    — Alan J. Borsuk, jsonline.com, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Bruzzone’s vocals seesaw between throat-buzzing alien croaks and clean vocals that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Mars Volta ballad.
    — Sam Goldner, Pitchfork, 30 Mar. 2026
  • Back in her courtroom, Dugan sounded out of breath and rushed through proceedings, Brown Watzka argued.
    — John Diedrich, jsonline.com, 18 Dec. 2025
  • Everything came across as a bit mid-heavy, and the sub-bass line was almost completely missing except for its highest notes, which sounded out of place as a result.
    — Christian De Looper, PC Magazine, 23 Mar. 2026
  • In terms of managers who could be free, United sounded out Andoni Iraola, who is leaving Bournemouth after three seasons.
    — Laurie Whitwell, New York Times, 24 May 2026
  • As reading scores tumbled over the last decade, parents, scholars and literacy advocates pushed for teaching methods that align with decades of research about how kids learn to read — largely by sounding out words.
    — Sharon Lurye, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026
  • As reading scores tumbled over the past decade, parents, scholars and literacy advocates pushed for teaching methods that align with decades of research about how kids learn to read — largely by sounding out words.
    — ABC News, 13 May 2026
  • As reading scores tumbled over the past decade, parents, scholars and literacy advocates pushed for teaching methods that align with decades of research about how kids learn to read — largely by sounding out words.
    — ABC News, 13 May 2026
  • As reading scores tumbled over the past decade, parents, scholars and literacy advocates pushed for teaching methods that align with decades of research about how kids learn to read - largely by sounding out words.
    — CBS News, 13 May 2026
  • Democrats were looking for someone to challenge a GOP legislative candidate and sounded out Campbell during the meeting.
    — Los Angeles Times, 31 Dec. 2025
  • Teens work one-on-one with children alongside experienced teachers and are trained on the basics of phonics instruction including how to course correct when a student makes a mistake sounding out a word or mispronouncing a letter.
    — Read Alliance, Forbes.com, 12 June 2026
  • The administration has held meetings in recent weeks aimed at sounding out the builders on ways to improve housing affordability, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters.
    — Boston Herald Wire Services, Boston Herald, 11 Jan. 2026
  • When representatives from Saudi Arabia sounded out Vinicius Jr’s signing last summer, the Madrid board did not even want to negotiate.
    — Mario Cortegana, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2025
  • And while this is all in the very early stages, the same sources have mentioned to The Athletic that potential investors that could be sounded out include American funds linked to sport or large European companies.
    — Guillermo Rai, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2026
  • As their correspondence continued, Stein began to sound out Van Vechten about the possibility of finding an audience for Tender Buttons.
    — Via Scribner, Literary Hub, 7 Oct. 2025
  • But engineers were careful to design Ingenuity not to spin its carbon-fiber rotors faster than the speed of sound out of concern that exceeding Mach 1 (roughly 540 mph on Mars) might cause the blades to shatter.
    — ArsTechnica, 8 May 2026
  • Over the previous two years, Burr quietly—and then not-so-quietly—investigated the possibility of insurrection, sounding out allies, financiers, and military officers willing to join him.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 May 2026
  • Word is she has previously been sounded out for the BBC Director General job and passed, so would running smaller PSB outfit C4 work?
    — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 17 Oct. 2025
  • When Wilcox talked to his contacts to sound out who was considered football’s next great coach, Amorim’s name would also be raised, as well as that of Thiago Motta, who had done well in Italy at Bologna and was about to join Juventus.
    — Andy Mitten, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2025
  • Germany sounded out European lenders to defend Commerzbank AG against UniCredit SpA’s takeover bid earlier this year, according to people familiar with the matter.
    — Kamil Kowalcze, Bloomberg, 26 Apr. 2026

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