How to Use ulterior in a Sentence

ulterior

adjective
  • For him, the tree is saved for the tree's sake alone, without an ulterior motive.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, Jewish Journal, 21 Aug. 2017
  • For him, the tree is saved for the tree’s sake alone, without an ulterior motive.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, sun-sentinel.com, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Does the cop snooping around the house have ulterior motives here?
    — Kaitlin Reilly, refinery29.com, 14 Apr. 2020
  • Secrets and ulterior motives are de rigueur at work, and with no respite from colleagues, gloves come off.
    — Mary Cadden, USA TODAY, 9 Sep. 2020
  • Is that person a reliable source, or could there be an ulterior motive?
    — Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 5 Jan. 2022
  • But while Carmichael seems kind and friendly, his ulterior motives may be the darkest this show has seen yet.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 1 July 2020
  • There are no ulterior motives and that genuineness comes across.
    — Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 4 Mar. 2021
  • And there may be ulterior motives designed to be used in talks with the union for the players for a new labor agreement.
    — Maury Brown, Forbes, 21 June 2021
  • There is an ulterior motive – to avoid traffic and the 20 mph zones before and after school.
    — cleveland.com, 23 Aug. 2019
  • On the faces of a child, a vicar, a cop; sometimes threatening, other times more timid, but with a clear sense of ulterior motives.
    — K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2022
  • The Comey who emerges in these pages seems to doubt his aides and his bosses and suspect everyone around him of ulterior motives.
    — Washington Post, 25 Sep. 2020
  • Anything that looks like love in Lanthimos’s worlds always comes with some kind of ulterior motive.
    — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox, 21 Nov. 2018
  • The ulterior motive was to use our success to change where the songwriter sits in the economic equation.
    — Jem Aswad, Variety, 21 Sep. 2021
  • In her caption, Bell joked there was an ulterior motive behind all of Shepard's hard work.
    — Kelly Wynne, PEOPLE.com, 31 May 2022
  • Los Angeles has a bad rap for being a fake place; a land of fillers to plump up our sagging faces and broad smiles to hide ulterior motives.
    — Los Angeles Times, 26 May 2021
  • Plus, Davenport might have ulterior motives for hiring Dan in the first place.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 17 Jan. 2022
  • But the rescue mission takes a dark turn as the group fight to stay alive in freezing temperatures and ulterior motives are revealed.
    — Sydney Clarke, refinery29.com, 29 June 2021
  • And then to slowly peel that away and realize that he's got ulterior motives that are less than honorable, that's a hard performance to give.
    — Glenn Garner, PEOPLE.com, 1 Nov. 2021
  • But this is the Tudor court after all, which means Catherine has plenty of her own ulterior motives and bids for power.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 11 June 2022
  • For 90 minutes, perhaps people could resist the urge to be cynical, to search for the ulterior motive, to be on high alert.
    — Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2020
  • Hadder isn't sure if NGM has any ulterior motives for suspending the project.
    — Scott Sonner, Star Tribune, 7 Aug. 2020
  • Another fan pointed out that Paige/Michelle's friend who came to talk to Preacher could've had an ulterior motive.
    — Amanda Garrity, Good Housekeeping, 5 Dec. 2020
  • The camps—like Buchenwald—that stood on East German land were better-maintained, but with an ulterior motive.
    — Mattie Kahn, The Atlantic, 5 May 2022
  • So, the smoke taint thing, in a way, there may be some ulterior motives for people who are actually trying to kind of fix a supply and demand issue that's going on.
    — Soleil Ho, SFChronicle.com, 5 Oct. 2020
  • When asked by Pruden if Long believed the four women had any ulterior motives for coming forward, Long said no.
    — Crystal Hill, Indianapolis Star, 18 Nov. 2018
  • But the hopes, the dreams, the daring creativity, and the ties of community and family shared by people who have been oppressed forge an ulterior strength.
    — Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Aug. 2019
  • At the Tiedeman house, Aleksander is asking someone on the phone to figure out Clausen’s ulterior motives.
    — Abbey Maxbauer, refinery29.com, 25 June 2019
  • Royal watchers had long suspected that the Queen’s special privileges might be granted for some ulterior motive, but here it was set out in black and white for the first time.
    — David McClure, Town & Country, 3 Oct. 2020
  • The problem with this latest Ronaldo rumour, as with all rumours linking him to United over the years, is that there may still be ulterior motives at play.
    — SI.com, 25 June 2018
  • Ivory praised Nelson as a rare breed of AAU coach who truly has the interests of his players at heart and has no ulterior motives.
    — Nate Weitzer, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Feb. 2020

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