How to Use unnecessarily in a Sentence

unnecessarily

adverb
  • The ball goes down near his ribcage (unnecessarily) and then back up.
    — Andy Benoit, SI.com, 19 July 2017
  • But such a response to a false alarm will mean the cell will die unnecessarily.
    — Viviane Callier, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2025
  • That seemed unnecessarily strict to me, given the fact that the flight was less than half-full.
    — David Hudnall, Kansas City Star, 31 Jan. 2025
  • The film’s plot is an unnecessarily loose bag of bones, some of them inspired, some less so.
    — Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 5 Sep. 2024
  • That meant stale lollipops for the kids and unnecessarily long lines for adults.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Aug. 2021
  • This keeps them off of the floor and from getting unnecessarily scratched.
    — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 July 2022
  • We are not even supposed to kill a fly or destroy a tree unnecessarily.
    — Erin Gallagher, Lake County News-Sun, 25 May 2017
  • The saga is, from head to toe, deeply strange and oh so unnecessarily dramatic.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 9 Aug. 2019
  • The text raised her blood pressure and heart rate unnecessarily.
    — Byron McCauley, The Enquirer, 11 Aug. 2020
  • All that would have done is unnecessarily pissed people off and slowed things down by maybe 60 days.
    — Zachary Fryer-Biggs, Vox, 12 Apr. 2018
  • Drunk or not, the vibe shifts fast, and the whole thing feels unnecessarily explosive.
    — Shelby Stewart, Essence, 31 Mar. 2025
  • But the last thing those legs needed was to be unnecessarily forced into a higher gear.
    — Jeff Wilson, star-telegram, 17 Apr. 2018
  • While each route needs convenient stops, too many can unnecessarily slow the trip.
    — Tom Condon, Hartford Courant, 17 July 2022
  • Even in the first year the team spent unnecessarily on player payroll.
    — Andrew Joseph, For The Win, 7 June 2018
  • Put a finger down if you’ve been followed in a store unnecessarily.
    — Abby Gardner, Glamour, 3 June 2020
  • Turning them off helps reduce the urge to check your phone unnecessarily.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 5 July 2025
  • This is the ticket to keep those hems from sliding up and showing things unnecessarily.
    — John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Apr. 2018
  • Still, Grier feels the rebuild in a good spot, and does not want to unnecessarily rush things.
    — Curtis Pashelka, The Mercury News, 1 Feb. 2025
  • To avoid throwing away food unnecessarily, make sure to avoid this scenario in the future.
    — Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 7 Dec. 2024
  • To avoid throwing away food unnecessarily, make sure to avoid this scenario in the future.
    — Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 7 Dec. 2025
  • This move is meant to crack down on apps that request the permission unnecessarily.
    — Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 21 Feb. 2020
  • Don’t keep your driver waiting unnecessarily long; their time is just as valuable as yours.
    — Elizabeth Fogarty, Better Homes & Gardens, 21 Aug. 2025
  • This could cause the heater to cycle on and off unnecessarily, leading to a waste of energy.
    — Timothy Dale, Better Homes & Gardens, 19 Feb. 2025
  • Manley said more time is needed to ensure the standard put in place is not unnecessarily strict.
    — Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 17 Apr. 2020
  • To achieve more even drying and cut down on unnecessarily long drying time, aim to sort your laundry by fabric type or weight.
    — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 12 May 2025
  • To achieve more even drying and cut down on unnecessarily long drying time, aim to sort your laundry by fabric type or weight.
    — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 4 Dec. 2025
  • Spending unnecessarily or for the wrong reason should be dealt with quickly in order to ease stress.
    — Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 12 June 2019
  • Mail-in states don’t have eight-hour wait lines where voting is unnecessarily difficult.
    — U T Readers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Apr. 2026
  • The skips in time that occur in the play are unnecessarily italicized.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2025
  • People who are out there unnecessarily clogging our roads are putting others' safety at risk.
    — Katie Landeck, The Providence Journal, 22 Feb. 2026

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