How to Use precept in a Sentence

precept

noun
  • I was taught by precept and by example.
  • The song mattered more than the author, a pop precept more than a rock one.
    Michaelangelo Matos, Rolling Stone, 24 Aug. 2022
  • My father called his hair a crown, his locks a mane, his beard a precept.
    Safiya Sinclair, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
  • Not feeding the trolls is one of the first and most important precepts of our current era.
    Chris Stirewalt, Fox News, 1 June 2017
  • Those sharp eyes also kept watch at home, which was strict and faith-filled in following the precepts of the Catholic Church.
    Chris Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Apr. 2024
  • As teenage boys are wont to do, Reuven and Danny question and challenge many of their elders' precepts.
    Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Anything that challenges that precept must be put down.
    Charles M. Blow New York Times, Star Tribune, 8 Mar. 2021
  • The Democrats’ guiding strategic precept is: Never let a crisis go to waste.
    Kyle Smith, National Review, 14 Aug. 2020
  • Those are some of the downtown precepts that haven’t taken as easily.
    Giovanni Russonello, New York Times, 12 Dec. 2017
  • The precepts laid down there form the foundations of the medical philosophies that shape our health care today.
    Jordan Kisner, The Atlantic, 7 Mar. 2020
  • Trump once again threatens to upend the precepts of the U.S. political system and test the foundations of the country’s rule of law.
    Tessa Berenson Rogers, TIME, 30 May 2024
  • Likewise, the precept that large monuments and tombs are always proof of systems of rank comes up for review.
    Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 11 July 2022
  • Their precepts have been followed by people as diverse as Daniel Boone and Gauguin.
    Will Stephenson, Harper's Magazine, 16 Aug. 2023
  • From the importance of lids to picking the best fragrance for every room in your house, here, Raza shares the four simple precepts on how to burn a candle like a grown-up.
    Mackenzie Wagoner, Vogue, 9 Jan. 2018
  • All of those precepts sent Google's workforce into full tilt after the travel ban was announced.
    Nitasha Tiku, WIRED, 13 Aug. 2019
  • One of her core precepts is to go on an artist’s date, a solo excursion to experience new things.
    Janine MacLachlan, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
  • This is helpful when many of the precepts of elite opinion have been so dominant as to go largely unnoticed.
    Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 3 Jan. 2017
  • The precept that wars make states make constitutions held elsewhere.
    Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2021
  • The basic precept of the best-in-breed concept is to look at clouds and third parties as simply collections of services that can be mixed and matched as an app team's needs dictate.
    Kit Colbert, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2021
  • The report found that Taliban judges were well trained and drew on cultural norms and common sense, not just Islamic precepts.
    Pamela Constable, Washington Post, 21 June 2018
  • Kelsey Grammer: What Chuck did went back to one of the basic precepts of Christianity, which is inclusion.
    Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 23 Feb. 2023
  • Health workers, deeply invested in the precepts of social medicine, are sure to resist Milei’s attempts at health reform.
    Eric D. Carter, Fortune, 8 Oct. 2023
  • In one sense, this is shocking, but not surprising, as the man has no core principles, no core moral precepts that guide his behavior.
    Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 8 Jan. 2024
  • But the Bishnois stand out for taking their saint’s precepts to extremes to protect the rare blackbuck, the delicate chinkara and other antelopes that live alongside them in the harsh desert.
    Shashank Bengali, latimes.com, 17 May 2018
  • These precepts, the two sets of three rules the father of the legendary basketball coach John Wooden imparted to his four sons, also governed the Jones household.
    Ben Shpigel, New York Times, 7 Aug. 2019
  • Both in terms of maximizing his muscle and playing to the Heat's defensive precepts.
    Ira Winderman, Sun-Sentinel.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • A woman named Gina Miller took the government to court and won an action that compelled May to obey democratic precepts and debate a bill.
    Henry Porter, The Hive, 1 Feb. 2017
  • What if a church refuses to host a ceremony that offends its moral precepts?
    John Hirschauer, National Review, 14 Oct. 2019
  • Her campaign spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the precept and ended up with the most expensive defeat in history.
    Chris Stirewalt, Fox News, 2 June 2017
  • That has always been the NRA's driving force, and the only thing that changed after 1977 was the militarization of this organizing precept.
    TIME, 12 Feb. 2024

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