How to Use pejorative in a Sentence
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Kooky is a word thrown around a lot to describe the new Netflix show — but, no, it’s not meant as a pejorative.
— Andy Meek, BGR, 23 Nov. 2022 -
But when used by non-Romani people, the G-word is a pejorative.
— The Foretold Team, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2023 -
No one in Anderson uses the term Redskins as a pejorative, or as a way to get a cheap laugh.
— Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 13 June 2018 -
But Brooks never imagined the pejorative could be stricken from its use in the realm of science.
— The New York Times, Arkansas Online, 11 July 2021 -
There's no reason to expect anything about this to be normal and that's not a pejorative.
— Pat Brennan, The Enquirer, 10 July 2020 -
All the [pejorative] exist in Hugo, Minnesota, and it’s right here.
— Editorial Board Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 17 Aug. 2020 -
The concept of entitlement has been cast about as a pejorative for some time.
— J.c. Pan, The New Republic, 9 Apr. 2020 -
Her name has become a symbol, a pejorative, a way to demean and dismiss.
— Dallas News, 28 May 2020 -
Yet this, too, feels somehow in keeping with the folk spirit—the reappropriation of a pejorative, the making new of an old idea.
— Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 19 Apr. 2017 -
In back-and-forths among Gruden and Allen and some of their friends, Gruden seems more than elated to throw around slang terms for a woman’s genitalia as pejorative.
— Kurt Streeter, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2021 -
The man, Jack Shunnarah, of Hodgenville, Ky., laughed awkwardly as other men resting against the wall of the gas station repeated the pejorative.
— Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2020 -
In fact, his ties to Shaker Heights are often used as a pejorative compared to the rough upbringing of his method-acting peers such as Marlon Brando.
— John Benson, cleveland, 15 Aug. 2022 -
Some say it’s a pejorative and insist everyone has a right to draw on their faith and values to try to influence public policy.
— Peter Smith and Deepa Bharath, Anchorage Daily News, 29 May 2022 -
Being a game manager, by the way, should never be considered a pejorative.
— Ann Killion, SFChronicle.com, 12 Oct. 2019 -
The term later became a pejorative for African Americans.
— Chauncey Alcorn Cnn Business, CNN, 18 June 2020 -
In mainstream media, outright slurs are forbidden (though not everyone abides) and anything that smells pejorative is called out.
— Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 28 Dec. 2012 -
Okay, better, but wasn’t there something romantic and pompous—silly, to employ a favorite pejorative—in the poem’s very conception?
— Brad Leithauser, WSJ, 12 Aug. 2022 -
Your character said this to Maverick as a pejorative, but did Cruise’s reputation precede him in the best possible way?
— Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 May 2022 -
Some say it’s a derogatory word for female anatomy, while others say the origin wasn’t negative and was simply a way to refer to Native women, but the word took on new meaning as white settlers used it as a pejorative.
— Emilly Davis, azcentral, 19 June 2020 -
Americans do not care much for bureaucracy, to the extent that the word bureaucracy itself functions as a pejorative.
— Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 15 Oct. 2019 -
His classmates snickered and called him indio—Indian—a pejorative for anyone with non-European blood.
— Longreads, 19 Jan. 2022 -
The militants confiscated their homes, marking them with the Arabic letter nun, for Nasrani, a word meaning Christian that many consider a pejorative.
— Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2021 -
Among practitioners, the word is considered a pejorative.
— Dieu-Nalio Chery, Washington Post, 24 Aug. 2022 -
So strong are the negative associations that the word itself has become a pejorative for someone deceitful or disloyal.
— Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 8 July 2022 -
Some Sonorans, however, consider the term a pejorative, preferring instead tortillas de agua or tortillas grandes.
— Patricia Escárcega, latimes.com, 26 June 2019 -
After Republicans began throwing that term around as a pejorative, Mr. Obama embraced it.
— Carl Hulse, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2017 -
But plenty of people mentioned the company in the pejorative — saying their practices were the result of introducing a profit motive into the correctional industry.
— Tad Vezner, Twin Cities, 21 Mar. 2017 -
Another admonition might be appropriate: Do not use a pejorative when naming your work.
— Charles Isherwood, WSJ, 24 Mar. 2023 -
Analytics has become a catchall pejorative applied to any bold, unconventional decision a coach might make—especially one that fails.
— Alex Kirshner, The Atlantic, 27 Nov. 2022 -
Jogging was a huge fad in the 1970s during the original recreational running boom, but the word eventually became a condescending pejorative within competitive, race-centric running culture.
— Brian Metzler, Outside Online, 2 Mar. 2022
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This is a small grill, but that's in no way to be taken in the pejorative sense.
— Steven John, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2021 -
So to say this is 11th hour is not a -- is not pejorative.
— Fox News, 18 Sep. 2018 -
Then a reader who had worked with Navajo and Pueblo tribes wrote in to complain about the pejorative use of the term.
— James Fallows, The Atlantic, 1 Nov. 2017 -
Rick also finds a bunch of poor white trash (that’s not a pejorative.
— Michael Harriot, The Root, 22 Oct. 2017 -
Aging is something to be aware of, and not in a pejorative way.
— Kathleen Hou, The Cut, 12 June 2017 -
That era has been damned with a pejorative label: the Gilded Age.
— Phil Gramm, wsj.com, 7 May 2023 -
Of course, the choices of just what to talk about can be seen as pejorative, but please know that is not my intention.
— Stephanie Stradley, Houston Chronicle, 16 Oct. 2020 -
Wilde ended up in Reading Jail and died an early death, but the use of the word as a pejorative term long outlived him.
— Kevin Fisher-Paulson, SFChronicle.com, 23 June 2020 -
People do need to know, not in a pejorative way, not in a finger pointing way, but just look at the data.
— CBS News, 11 July 2021 -
Barack Obama, in 2019, used it in a way that was kind of pejorative and dismissive.
— Brandon Tensley, CNN, 10 July 2022 -
Like in the pejorative sense, but just to be more conservative.
— Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 3 Aug. 2021 -
There’s even a pejorative industry term for it: the money mark.
— Todd Martin, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2019 -
Soon, their coach earned a slew of pejorative nicknames like Nuthouse and Outhouse.
— New York Times, 9 May 2022 -
Despite the fact that many of them describe him as awkward, geeky, stupid, and other pejorative phrases, all of it is said with the utmost respect and love.
— Dan Reilly, Vulture, 24 June 2021 -
In a familiar pattern, people subjected to pejorative terms can seize on them and flaunt them as a badge of pride.
— John McIntyre, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 July 2023 -
Luck made a selfish decision, but that is no longer a pejorative.
— Adam Kilgore, courant.com, 26 Aug. 2019 -
Their tactics worked and, over time, the pejorative meaning of charlatan stuck.
— Elizabeth Heath, Discover Magazine, 15 Feb. 2023 -
First, there is a long history of classifying emotion in a pejorative way and then blaming that on the uterus.
— Alison Escalante, Forbes, 12 Nov. 2021 -
Members are sometimes referred to by a pejorative colloquialism derived from the name of the group's founder — the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
— Grayson Quay, The Week, 10 July 2022 -
The Amazigh are better known as Berbers, but that’s actually a pejorative name, derived from the word barbarian.
— Terri Colby, Philly.com, 20 Sep. 2017 -
Letters that spell a pejorative German word for people of color briefly appear on screen before filling out to display the slogan for the new Golf.
— BostonGlobe.com, 12 June 2020 -
Often, people in the past who practiced things like magic, herbalism, and healing didn't call themselves witches, as the term was seen as pejorative.
— Sarah Lyons, Teen Vogue, 13 Oct. 2017 -
In the past 50 years the number of pejorative monger terms has proliferated.
— Stephen Miller, WSJ, 25 Apr. 2021 -
Emolument may indeed be a completely non-pejorative term derived from the Latin word for a miller’s honest fee.
— Ruth Walker, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 June 2017 -
Most whites lack the privilege of a Booker, Castro, Harris, and Yang, and to lump them into some amorphous blessed class is about as moral and accurate as the old pejorative stereotyping of the non-white.
— Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 6 Aug. 2019 -
Another called Si’s wife a pejorative slur used to describe a Chinese person.
— Los Angeles Times, 2 Mar. 2021 -
This is not a pejorative term, but the ordinariness of this family.
— Brent Lang, Variety, 23 Nov. 2021 -
Amazon declined to comment about products on its site with pejorative statements about Alexa.
— Alexa Juliana Ard, Anchorage Daily News, 4 Dec. 2021 -
Of late, Karen has been typically used as a pejorative term in the United States for a White woman who is perceived as demanding or privileged.
— Alexandra Deabler, Fox News, 19 Aug. 2020 -
If a distinguished Oxford historian can use beggar, then to my mind there is nothing pejorative about the word.
— Stephen Miller, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2021
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pejorative.' 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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