How to Use wannabe in a Sentence

wannabe

noun
  • The news isn't all bad for Santa wannabes.
    — Alain Sherter, CBS News, 23 Dec. 2025
  • Butler’s head turned to get a second look at the wannabe Sophia.
    — David Jerome, Orange County Register, 19 Jan. 2017
  • Or a death march of also-rans and wannabes tumbling out on stage like clowns from a small car?
    — Bill Goodykoontz, azcentral, 26 June 2019
  • My homeschooling wannabe mama heart kind of aches over all this screen time.
    — The Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2020
  • Try to imagine how special that was for a teenager and radio wannabe!
    — Karen Bliss, Billboard, 15 Apr. 2019
  • The wannabes are compiling mock draft after mock draft after mock draft.
    — Jim McBride, BostonGlobe.com, 16 Feb. 2023
  • But there appears to be a new breed of a cop wannabe, one that cruises using only their hard drive.
    — Barbara Hijek, Sun-Sentinel.com, 6 Oct. 2017
  • Jones turns both sides of Two-Face into a limp wannabe Joker.
    — Darren Franich, EW.com, 27 Jan. 2022
  • But thankfully the only injury suffered was to the pride of the wannabe perp.
    — Sainted & Tainted Writers, Twin Cities, 14 Sep. 2019
  • So pick up a tube and throw it in the stocking of the dancer/performer/wannabe Rockette in your life.
    — Allure, 17 Dec. 2017
  • Once upon a time, this was a clear path to success for GOP wannabes.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 7 Mar. 2023
  • The idea that Bessette was some sort of wannabe was anathema for Hines.
    — Antonia Blyth, Deadline, 10 June 2026
  • What’s your opinion on Yelp, where everyone is a wannabe food critic?
    — Pete Wells, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2017
  • In the end, the crowd voted, and the wannabe from Bourbonnais walked away with the title.
    — Shardaa Gray, CBS News, 21 Jan. 2026
  • So what if the game was a wannabe of the annual Army-Navy spectacle?
    — Mike Klingaman, Baltimore Sun, 15 Nov. 2022
  • There were a few gaffes, but nothing that would rise to the level of candidacy-killing flubs by statewide wannabes in the past.
    — Dara Kam, OrlandoSentinel.com, 19 Apr. 2018
  • The show followed wannabe designers who work to make the best clothes in different challenges.
    — Kathleen Joyce, Fox News, 7 Sep. 2018
  • But for Rozzi wannabes, the Fourth of July is a holiday not to be missed.
    — Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati.com, 5 July 2018
  • Prime-time-soap wannabes spread like kudzu across the three networks as the 1980s unfolded.
    — Jim McKairnes, USA TODAY, 26 Dec. 2019
  • And they’ve been worn by working cowboys and just about every Western wannabe in the country.
    — Sandra Dallas, Denver Post, 8 June 2026
  • The war in Ukraine drew armed wannabe-soldiers to the embassy volunteering to fight.
    — Peter Hermann, Washington Post, 23 Sep. 2022
  • But that separates the girls from the women, the professionals from the wannabe.
    — Jaya Saxena, GQ, 10 May 2018
  • No Elliot Stabler wannabe brandishes fists in her face.
    — Jim Higgins, jsonline.com, 24 Mar. 2026
  • Joker wannabes are flooding the area, barely getting out of their Ubers to take a picture and abruptly leave.
    — Wired, 24 Oct. 2019
  • Among the visitors during the recording were some earnest young wannabes who called themselves Pink Floyd.
    — Tim De Lisle, Newsweek, 14 May 2017
  • This seemingly harmless zombie who was Pugsley’s wannabe pet, has his own agenda.
    — Monica Mercuri, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Margie is a wannabe novelist who spends a lot of her time speaking about the Agony of Being an Artist.
    — Mallory Ortberg, Slate Magazine, 27 Mar. 2017
  • What’s the difference between Chris Doyle and a Loser wannabe?
    — Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2021
  • The gap between Big Ten royalty and Big Ten wannabes seems wider than ever.
    — Teddy Greenstein, chicagotribune.com, 28 Sep. 2019
  • His wannabe Captain Kirk is the opposite of his real-life persona—an assertive badass and a ladies man.
    — Ryan Smith, Chicago Reader, 8 Jan. 2018

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