How to Use provocation in a Sentence

provocation

noun
  • With hardly any provocation, the crowd began to chant.
  • He can turn violent at the least provocation.
  • Her calmness in the face of repeated provocations impressed her friends.
  • To do so, for artists like Braque and Höch, was a means of provocation.
    Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 16 Aug. 2024
  • That great unknown alone makes the provocation worth the hype.
    Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2023
  • And provocation includes things that make the pain worse.
    Jenny Sweigard, Verywell Health, 5 Mar. 2024
  • This show can feel like a provocation, a dare to hate Carmichael, then love him and back again.
    Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 13 May 2024
  • There was provocation on the part of both Bradley and Allissa.
    Emily Palmer, Peoplemag, 13 Sep. 2023
  • The label name is a clear provocation to those who see jazz as extinct.
    Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2021
  • That doesn’t mean Ishiba will be weak in the face of Chinese provocations.
    Arata Yamamoto, NBC News, 27 Sep. 2024
  • There has to be at least a minimum of provocation in art.
    New York Times, 3 Feb. 2022
  • In the worldview of this movie, there’s no room for it: There is no such thing as love conquered by provocation.
    K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 6 Apr. 2022
  • And so the provocations and groans continue, for two hours and 40 minutes that could have been half or twice as long.
    Jesse Green, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2024
  • Some of Tibi’s florals and swirls drew the eye downward, a quiet provocation.
    Miami Staff, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024
  • But there is more than prurience or even provocation at work here.
    Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 1 Sep. 2023
  • All of this deserves headlines, which, by their nature, err on the side of provocation.
    Kent Sepkowitz, CNN, 2 Aug. 2021
  • Then horror struck, when a man pulled a gun on them without provocation and shots rang out.
    Marlene Lenthang, NBC News, 30 Nov. 2023
  • Very awkward message to project to a crowd of moviegoers, but it is meant to be a provocation.
    Jennifer Wilson, The New Republic, 27 Dec. 2022
  • Berlin fears that Moscow will view the presence of German tanks as a provocation and wants the US to send its tanks to give it cover.
    Frida Ghitis, CNN, 22 Jan. 2023
  • But the dare, the invitation to couple with the man who is your brother, still retains the charge of provocation.
    Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 22 Apr. 2022
  • Palestinians see the event, which passes through the heart of the Muslim Quarter, as a provocation.
    Josef Federman, ajc, 29 May 2022
  • The stranger lunged at the victim with a sharp object without any provocation, slashing his neck, cops said.
    Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 13 July 2024
  • At highway speeds, the slightest throttle provocation causes the CVT to lower the drive ratio, which in turn causes the revs to jump and the engine to moan.
    Joe Lorio, Car and Driver, 22 Sep. 2021
  • But my view is that inaction would be the greatest provocation.
    David Meyer, Fortune, 28 Apr. 2022
  • But for now, it’s best viewed as a provocation or an advertising blitz.
    Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 16 Feb. 2024
  • But what happened — what’s been happening — is that his words and actions float on the veneer of provocation.
    Damon Young, Washington Post, 17 Oct. 2022
  • The gunman had fired one shot — without provocation — striking Daniel Enriquez, 48, in the chest and killing him, the police later said.
    New York Times, 22 May 2022
  • Rather than claiming the bounty, the bounty hunter does a kind of oddish ransomware provocation.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes, 16 July 2022
  • These remarks can feel evasive, and also like attempts to veer away from the urge to decode Solondz’s provocations.
    Elena Saavedra Buckley, The New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2024
  • The North is likely to stage more provocations, even a nuclear test explosion and a long-range missile test.
    Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week Uk, theweek, 17 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'provocation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: