How to Use zealot in a Sentence

zealot

noun
  • In his writing, Plante can come off as a zealot.
    — Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 23 Apr. 2026
  • Clara Molot talks to the zealots who are holding the line.
    — Clara Molot, Vanity Fair, 17 Mar. 2026
  • Winning brings out the zealots, and zealots devour their friends.
    — David Von Drehle, Washington Post, 17 June 2024
  • His detractors call him a zealot.
    — Andy McCullough, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2026
  • Cloe is the mean girl, Lisa is the zealot, Astrid is the dumb one.
    — Joe Otterson, Variety, 9 July 2024
  • Russell played the steely zealot, and Rhys the warm one, full of doubts.
    — Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Cloe is the mean girl, Lisa is the zealot and Astrid is the less smart one.
    — Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 9 July 2024
  • Crackstone was a zealot who hated and feared the outcasts and planned to kill them all.
    — Aimée Lutkin, ELLE, 24 Nov. 2022
  • But sometimes conscience demands that even we zealots of the future take stock.
    — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 29 Oct. 2024
  • But calling him an overbearing zealot would be missing the point.
    — Keith Bierygolick, The Enquirer, 13 Aug. 2021
  • The rules are tailored to allow any zealot, anywhere, to challenge any book at any time.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 1 Jan. 2024
  • Hardly the words or actions of a pot zealot white-knuckling the armchair with fears of the feds.
    — The Denver Post Editorial Board, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2017
  • The zealot should scrupulously develop a counter-trait of shalom.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, sun-sentinel.com, 28 June 2021
  • Only some were zealots, but all were fed up with one or another entrenched power.
    — National Geographic, 17 Oct. 2016
  • There are a variety of reasons, but first and foremost, anti-gun zealots lie.
    — Paul Jenkins, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Feb. 2018
  • But Yang didn’t want to become consumed by Barbie in the way so many zealots are.
    — Anne Branigin, Washington Post, 15 July 2023
  • Cromwell was more a religious zealot than any Christian right-winger today.
    — Jonah Goldberg, National Review, 27 Sep. 2017
  • And those who weep for them or try to protect them are condemned roundly as religious zealots and akin to racists.
    — John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 13 June 2019
  • Play as big a role in the mundane activities of politics as the zealots do.
    — Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, azcentral, 30 Apr. 2018
  • So please, all the lefty-loosey and righty-tighty Venezuela zealots, spare us your bulla — and try using your noggins now.
    — Tim Padgett, Sun Sentinel, 11 Aug. 2024
  • Americans tended to see him as a religious zealot.
    — Alex Shams, Time, 14 Mar. 2026
  • The main stone altar, a flat disk about 20 feet across and raised about two feet off the ground, was smashed by Mao’s zealots.
    — Ian Johnson, New York Times, 1 May 2017
  • But the zealots of the boycott movement didn’t listen to the likes of Mngoma.
    — Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 20 Nov. 2024
  • But when should even the most fervent late-round quarterback zealot consider taking one of the top passers?
    — Michael Beller, SI.com, 4 July 2018
  • In Spanish, the line is gendered, as any bilingual Alcaraz zealot may point out.
    — José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 12 May 2026
  • The war is being run by zealots who will measure their success by the sheer number of people deported.
    — Letters To The Editor, Orlando Sentinel, 22 Jan. 2025
  • To the bemusement of zealots on both sides of the culture wars, the decision was unanimous.
    — Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, National Review, 30 June 2023
  • Late in the game, the play suffers from a creeping tediousness that can come from the speechifying of zealots of every stripe.
    — Andrea Simakis, cleveland.com, 16 May 2017
  • There is no denying that Friend was a religious zealot who had some very extreme ideas (which will be explored in this book).
    — Literary Hub, 21 Jan. 2026
  • The Iraq war was not foisted on the United States by conflict-craving zealots.
    — Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023

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