How to Use but in a Sentence

but

1 of 3 preposition

• Who but you would think that?
• There was no one there but him.
• I didn't tell anyone but my sister.
• Thus the world cannot help but sway to the Fed’s tunes.
  — The Economist, 14 June 2018
• Now the Cubs don’t have to do anything but open the gates.
  — Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 3 July 2018
• Why play by the rules of a world that brought you nothing but fear?
  — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 23 Aug. 2019
• Still, Couper had nothing but nice things to say about the wedge.
  — Nick Kindelsperger, chicagotribune.com, 21 June 2018
• The fire left behind nothing but the steel frame and part of the T-Rex’s tail.
  — Matthew Martinez, star-telegram, 23 Mar. 2018
• There's a time zone that's nothing but ocean, in case the fish have watches.
  — Ken Jennings, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Jan. 2018
• On the whole, space is mostly empty, but the space around the Earth is anything but.
  — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 3 Apr. 2018
• The last week my mindset has just been nothing but wins.
  — Shawn Courchesne, courant.com, 4 Aug. 2019
• Nicky Lopez had little choice but to just keep his head down and grind.
  — Blake Baumgartner, Naperville Sun, 7 July 2018
• But what about those without any choice but to get married in the fall?
  — Ben Flanagan, AL.com, 27 Oct. 2017
• Firefighters had no choice but to sit back and hope the fire wouldn't grow in the meantime.
  — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 18 June 2018
• Pierce Brosnan can’t help but gush about his youngest son, Paris.
  — Alexia Fernandez, PEOPLE.com, 12 June 2019
• But the weeks leading up to that photo were anything but adorable.
  — Christina Oehler, Health.com, 13 May 2020
• There is no other way but to give a clear message to the public.
  — Jim Daley, Scientific American, 7 Aug. 2019
• So the notion that this has been anything but amazing for the far left and the far right is just ridiculous.
  — Eric Johnson, Recode, 28 Sep. 2018
• Despite the pleas for calm, the nation seemed anything but as a fitful week drew to a close.
  — Robert Klemko, BostonGlobe.com, 29 May 2020
• That’s what all but demands the Cowboys reach a long-term agreement with him.
  — Tim Cowlishaw, Dallas News, 14 Apr. 2020
• Nvidia Graphs are supposed to be hard math, but this one is anything but.
  — Brad Chacos, PCWorld, 13 Sep. 2018
• Antek kissed no one but his wife and served no man anything but whisky and beer.
  — Bill Savage, Chicago Reader, 13 June 2018
• Better yet, do it and tell no one but your favorite group chat.
  — Connie Wang & Lily Fulop, Refinery29, 7 Apr. 2020
• The sauce should have a pleasant orange flavor but not be too sweet.
  — Daniel Neman, sacbee, 26 June 2018
• The hard thing is that this is anything but an ordinary case.
  — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 25 July 2019
• The dinners are four courses and cost $55, which includes tax but not tip.
  — Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2019
• Honnold doesn’t just answer queries about what to wear to the rock gym (anything but tight jeans, right?).
  — Patrick Farrell, WIRED, 26 Aug. 2019
• And the start of its 2019 season has been anything but consistent.
  — Pat Stoetzer, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 13 Sep. 2019
• That’d be a slap in the face of all African-Americans, for whom the issue is anything but tiresome.
  — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 17 Feb. 2020
• Let the tooth of one gear reach close to the rim of the other gear but not quite touching (just a couple millimeters away from the rim).
  — Scientific American, 21 Nov. 2019

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but

2 of 3 adverb

• They have but two weeks to get ready.
• The line of cities bidding to host the Olympics in the wake of the record-setting 1984 Games has all but disappeared.
  — Scott Reid, Orange County Register, 9 June 2017
• First date was coffee; not long but nice, and left me wanting to know more.
  — The Cut, 21 May 2017
• Time is short and the Kings’ margin for error has all but vanished.
  — Orange County Register, 13 Mar. 2017
• Exactly one minute later, Nolan Volcan made the score 5-3 and the game was all but over.
  — Jim Riley, The Seattle Times, 12 May 2017
• And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater.
  — WSJ, 22 Nov. 2022
• Also, his change-up, which was a big weapon against lefty hitters in 2016, has all but disappeared.
  — Anthony Fenech, Detroit Free Press, 13 July 2017
• The one thing everyone agrees on is that the undecided vote has all but vanished.
  — Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, 18 June 2017
• Drought, which covered almost a third of the nation at the beginning of winter, has all but vanished.
  — Jason Samenow, Washington Post, 27 Apr. 2017
• The employer tried to replace them with local hires, but within three hours all but one had quit, Brubaker told the gathering at the White House.
  — Fox News, 15 May 2017
• As the chart above makes plain, the issue of monopolies had all but disappeared from the public forum by the time Ronald Reagan took office in 1981.
  — Stacy Mitchell, The Atlantic, 20 June 2017
• Pliskova jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second set, and while Wozniacki held her serve, Pliskova did not let up, winning all of her first serve points and all but two on her second serve.
  — Alexa Philippou, Cincinnati.com, 19 Aug. 2017
• Mahomes likely won’t get but deserves the MVP award after overcoming a slightly tougher road than Rodgers to get his conference’s top seed.
  — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Dec. 2020
• My brother’s family is kind but poor, and relies on help from family, friends and various agencies to make ends meet.
  — Carolyn Hax, The Mercury News, 7 Jan. 2017
• The Bilali Document is a reminder of a history all but forgotten.
  — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, 15 July 2017
• Several outlets have reported that the deal, including David Aldrige who tweeted the deal was all but done late Saturday evening.
  — Tim Brown, OregonLive.com, 17 June 2017
• In California, emissions testing even for off-road bikes has rendered two-strokes all but illegal.
  — Nick Goddard, Popular Mechanics, 27 June 2017
• As Hong Kong gets ready to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its handover to China, which happened just as Asia’s crisis began to unfold, that pain seems all but forgotten.
  — Alfred Liu, Bloomberg.com, 21 May 2017
• Aerial photographs of an isolated tribe in the Brazilian rain forest are yielding a sensational new look at a Neolithic way of life that has all but disappeared from the face of the Earth.
  — Ricardo Stuckert, National Geographic, 21 Dec. 2016
• Egypt’s vital tourism industry has all but disappeared.
  — Nour Youssef, New York Times, 23 Sep. 2016
• And other characteristics of the Dmanisi hominids, such as their more modern limb-to-body proportions, don’t match up with H. habilis at all but do fit with H. erectus, which evolved in Africa about 1.9 million years ago.
  — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 26 Feb. 2015
• Because of his unusual status, his access to jailers and fellow prisoners has all but been eliminated.
  — Michael Gordon, charlotteobserver, 1 May 2017
• In evading surveillance and defying governance by persisting as a trace, (an absent presence, something not there, which cannot but be felt) against all odds, history persists.
  — Jerrine Tan, Wired, 4 Aug. 2022
• The narrative thrust hangs on the hook of a seemingly ordinary American family ending up in a situation that’s anything but, and the enterprise is to figure out what exactly happened.
  — Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 5 Jan. 2021
• Obama's national security team had decided to ask for Trump's sign-off, since the plan would all but certainly be executed after Trump had become president.
  — Tribune News Service, NOLA.com, 18 May 2017
• The wide-angle lens of television invites immersion in a pivotal midlife decade that—for anyone juggling a career, children, and aging parents, as well as their own compromises, regrets, and unfulfilled ambitions—is anything but dry.
  — Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2022
• Anyone meeting its representatives and leaders cannot but be impressed by their knowledge, education, and intelligence.
  — Douglas Carr, National Review, 14 Sep. 2020
• The controversies of this presidency have made bipartisan cooperation all but impossible, and there is not enough unity among Republicans to pass politically charged legislation on a partisan basis.
  — James Capretta, National Review, 19 Aug. 2017
• They have but two weeks to get ready.
• The line of cities bidding to host the Olympics in the wake of the record-setting 1984 Games has all but disappeared.
  — Scott Reid, Orange County Register, 9 June 2017

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but

3 of 3 noun

• No ifs, ands or buts about it, the Pels must win both games.
  — Jeff Duncan, NOLA.com, 2 Apr. 2018
• Weigh-in daily No ifs, ands, or buts, about it, get on the scale.
  — Kimberly Garrison, Philly.com, 1 May 2018
• That way there's no ifs, ands or buts about what's going on.
  — Bobby Nightengale, Cincinnati.com, 4 Mar. 2020
• But there was a but of confusion from the judges and fans at home.
  — Leah Rocketto, Woman's Day, 29 Oct. 2020
• If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books.
  — Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2018
• Listen, ifs and buts and candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books.
  — Anthony Man, Sun-Sentinel.com, 27 Feb. 2018
• The three, four and five (positions) need to crash the boards every possession — no ifs, ands or buts.
  — Nick Kosmider, The Denver Post, 11 Jan. 2017
• And Mexico, no buts about it, Mexico will paaaay for the wall.
  — Graham Lanktree, Newsweek, 13 Dec. 2017
• Best friends make everything better — there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
  — Amanda Garrity, Good Housekeeping, 15 Dec. 2017
• There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it: Strength training is the key to ridding yourself of skinny-fat syndrome.
  — Kimberly Garrison, Philly.com, 17 Oct. 2017
• There are some people who're lucky enough to live in California or New Mexico and can laugh at the rest of us freezing our buts off.
  — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, 7 Jan. 2018
• Lee Corso said it without equivocation on Tuesday, without any ifs, ands or buts.
  — Creg Stephenson, AL.com, 17 Apr. 2018
• As for consumers who still subscribe to traditional cable and for whom these streaming services are just additive, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it: the monthly fees are mounting.
  — Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, 10 Oct. 2018
• Le meneur de jeu espagnol a marqué 10 buts et a offert 18 passes décisives cette saison.
  — SI.com, 17 Apr. 2018
• Anxious officials reached out to help her, buts realized that would disqualify her.
  — Bill Livingston, cleveland.com, 16 May 2017
• Investor advocates have long wanted one set of rules to apply to both advisors and brokers: that anyone handling money put investors’ interests first, with no ifs, ands or buts.
  — Barry Ritholtz, latimes.com, 24 June 2019
• No ifs, ands or buts about it, the Pels must win both games.
  — Jeff Duncan, NOLA.com, 2 Apr. 2018
• Weigh-in daily No ifs, ands, or buts, about it, get on the scale.
  — Kimberly Garrison, Philly.com, 1 May 2018
• That way there's no ifs, ands or buts about what's going on.
  — Bobby Nightengale, Cincinnati.com, 4 Mar. 2020
• But there was a but of confusion from the judges and fans at home.
  — Leah Rocketto, Woman's Day, 29 Oct. 2020
• If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books.
  — Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2018
• Listen, ifs and buts and candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books.
  — Anthony Man, Sun-Sentinel.com, 27 Feb. 2018
• The three, four and five (positions) need to crash the boards every possession — no ifs, ands or buts.
  — Nick Kosmider, The Denver Post, 11 Jan. 2017
• And Mexico, no buts about it, Mexico will paaaay for the wall.
  — Graham Lanktree, Newsweek, 13 Dec. 2017
• Best friends make everything better — there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
  — Amanda Garrity, Good Housekeeping, 15 Dec. 2017
• There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it: Strength training is the key to ridding yourself of skinny-fat syndrome.
  — Kimberly Garrison, Philly.com, 17 Oct. 2017
• There are some people who're lucky enough to live in California or New Mexico and can laugh at the rest of us freezing our buts off.
  — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, 7 Jan. 2018
• Lee Corso said it without equivocation on Tuesday, without any ifs, ands or buts.
  — Creg Stephenson, AL.com, 17 Apr. 2018
• As for consumers who still subscribe to traditional cable and for whom these streaming services are just additive, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it: the monthly fees are mounting.
  — Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, 10 Oct. 2018
• Le meneur de jeu espagnol a marqué 10 buts et a offert 18 passes décisives cette saison.
  — SI.com, 17 Apr. 2018

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024