How to Use ungovernable in a Sentence

ungovernable

adjective
  • The people there seemed almost ungovernable.
  • New York is a tough town and has been deemed ungovernable at times.
    — Time, 10 July 2021
  • To be a great man, in this tradition, is to be ungovernable by small rules.
    — Literary Hub, 6 May 2026
  • But at the time the city was deemed by statehood opponents as ungovernable.
    — CBS News, 4 July 2021
  • The next six months before the midterms will put the ungovernable House on display.
    — David Dayen, The New Republic, 22 May 2018
  • The old nostrum that France is ungovernable may be tested again.
    — New York Times, 23 Apr. 2022
  • The sky, its expanse, and the dark mystery beyond it are ungovernable.
    — Gala Mukomolova, refinery29.com, 19 Apr. 2021
  • The party is proving to be ungovernable, and that is wreaking havoc on the country as a whole.
    — Oliver Darcy, CNN, 4 Oct. 2023
  • To shut down the war, the antiwar movement and the country as a whole had to become ungovernable.
    — The Washington Post, The Denver Post, 9 Feb. 2017
  • Women will become ungovernable as these unjust laws begin to be the law of the land in states across the country.
    — Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press, 4 May 2022
  • The insurgency has left many parts of the north of the country ungovernable and killed hundreds.
    — Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, Quartz Africa, 22 Mar. 2020
  • Large areas of the north and east have become ungovernable since 2018.
    — Reuters, CNN, 30 Sep. 2022
  • Both sides agree that the city will become ungovernable without some kind of political change.
    — Keith Bradsher Photographs By Lam Yik Fei, New York Times, 29 June 2017
  • But some maintain that, at its core, the platform is ungovernable, and that not enough has changed in time for November.
    — Aarian Marshall, Wired, 22 June 2020
  • So, more broadly, does the future of the narrative of men’s ungovernable desires.
    — Anna North, Vox, 12 Sep. 2018
  • It is often called ungovernable, perhaps a little grandly.
    — Nathan Heller, New Yorker, 1 June 2026
  • These last few years of Twitter-screams and brimstone have left us more divided than ever and close to ungovernable.
    — David D. Haynes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12 Nov. 2020
  • Get our daily newsletter Chad is at the heart of Africa’s most ungovernable region.
    — The Economist, 18 July 2019
  • Because elliptic curves are so ungovernable, number theorists look for ways to link them with more tractable objects.
    — Erica Klarreich, Quanta Magazine, 29 Nov. 2022
  • Trump, always ungovernable, is not just trying to rewrite electoral history, though.
    — Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 13 Jan. 2026
  • The moon is passé; at an outpost, fast food chains flash familiar neon signs, while the ungovernable far side is a wild west of untapped resources fought over by space pirates.
    — Thomas Page, CNN, 16 Sep. 2019
  • What came first, Ben’s poor management style or Ellie’s ungovernable temper?
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Whoever wins will face the daunting challenge of governing a place long ago called the ungovernable city, and facing some of the toughest times in decades.
    — ABC News, 6 June 2021
  • Yet the party of government is busy rendering Britain ungovernable.
    — The Economist, 12 July 2018
  • Both sides agree that the territory will become ungovernable without some kind of political change.
    — Keith Bradsher, The Seattle Times, 29 June 2017
  • Even if Pakistan were a highly functional state, policing these nigh-ungovernable mountains would be a challenge.
    — Jonah Shepp, Daily Intelligencer, 7 Jan. 2018
  • Their enmity is total, and the country is becoming ungovernable.
    — David Roberts, Vox, 2 Nov. 2018
  • His caucus is ungovernable and will insist on doing destructive, often crazy things, to appeal to its base, its donors, and its media organs.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 13 Dec. 2022
  • The Party’s restive far-right flank has already insured that this is basically an ungovernable House.
    — Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2024
  • Hello Coop, The Coop remains ungovernable.
    — Christine Smallwood, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026

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