How to Use thought experiment in a Sentence

thought experiment

noun
  • This is such an easy thought experiment that is all too rare in our world today.
    — Alexis Drutchas, CNN, 3 June 2021
  • For me, these questions are not some idle thought experiment.
    — Matt Fitzgerald, Outside Online, 8 Sep. 2021
  • Still, there may be untapped power in what thought experiments can do for us.
    — Shai Tubali, Big Think, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Too late for this year, but a thought experiment for going forward.
    — Ginny Hogan, The New Yorker, 16 Apr. 2022
  • In this thought experiment, five people are about to be killed by a runaway trolley.
    — Daniel Kahneman, WSJ, 13 May 2021
  • To start things off, let’s entertain a thought experiment.
    — Stefan Szymanski, Fortune, 12 June 2026
  • To start things off, let’s entertain a thought experiment.
    — Stefan Szymanski, The Conversation, 10 June 2026
  • So why the sudden interest in this thought experiment of sorts?
    — Mara Santilli, SELF, 22 Apr. 2022
  • In terms of our thought experiment, that was not a coincidence.
    — Stephon Alexander, Wired, 31 Aug. 2021
  • Yet thought experiments have been part of philosophy from the start.
    — Shai Tubali, Big Think, 5 Aug. 2025
  • That makes this more of a thought experiment or a way to sneak in some extra appreciation for him.
    — Grant Brisbee, New York Times, 29 May 2026
  • The defense is like the ship of Theseus, the thought experiment that old Greek dudes loved.
    — Doug Lesmerises, cleveland, 1 May 2021
  • At first, the revisionism plays like a fun thought experiment.
    — Jason Parham, Wired, 2 Mar. 2021
  • Schrödinger coined this term while developing the thought experiment.
    — Peggy Landsman, Scientific American, 21 Mar. 2022
  • This conclusion is the outcome of using a model as a thought experiment.
    — John Drake, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2021
  • For this thought experiment, one of them is habitable enough to potentially host life.
    — John Wenz, Popular Mechanics, 19 Jan. 2016
  • But putting a stake in the ground about how things will unfold is nonetheless an informative and fun thought experiment.
    — Rob Toews, Forbes.com, 22 June 2026
  • This catchy thought experiment is meant to convey the amazing degree of connectedness in our world.
    — Kevin O'Marah, Forbes, 15 Feb. 2024
  • This one’s not for the faint of heart, but Splice certainly depicts what happens when a thought experiment is taken too far.
    — Brooke Knisley, Vulture, 22 Apr. 2021
  • Some thought experiments were born with transformation in their bones — crafted by philosophers who lived their questions.
    — Shai Tubali, Big Think, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Consider a famous thought experiment dreamed up by Galileo, to determine whether a heavy object falls faster than a lighter one.
    — Dan Falk, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Sep. 2020
  • The goal of this thought experiment is to highlight the immense power of vaccines and the impetus to immunize.
    — Zach Nayer, STAT, 17 Dec. 2020
  • At least engage in the thought experiment honestly and recognize that such a tax would also affect the market value of his shares.
    — WSJ, 15 June 2021
  • In the thought experiment, Maxwell imagined splitting a room full of gas into two compartments by erecting a wall with a small door.
    — Quanta Magazine, 22 Apr. 2021
  • In this thought experiment, readers are asked to imagine a person sitting in a room with a large book on how to answer questions in Chinese.
    — Big Think, 14 Oct. 2025
  • For most scientists, thought experiments served to test or visualize.
    — Shai Tubali, Big Think, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Some thought experiments, if truly wrestled with, can act like inner detonations.
    — Shai Tubali, Big Think, 5 Aug. 2025
  • The challenge of creating a device that looks and functions like a real lightsaber has long been the subject of practical and thought experiments.
    — Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, 18 Dec. 2015
  • This thought experiment is a fascinating way to consider the way people live around the world, which technologies spread rapidly, and which don't.
    — Sophie Weiner, Popular Mechanics, 10 June 2017
  • This thought experiment underscores how valuable those basic research dollars are.
    — Ryan Summers, The Conversation, 3 Oct. 2025

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