How to Use sine qua non in a Sentence

sine qua non

noun

• Patience is a sine qua non for this job.
• As the Latin phrase has it: sine qua non— without it nothing.
  — Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 23 Oct. 2020
• Cheap access to space is the sine qua non of that ambition.
  — The Economist, 30 May 2020
• For decades, the triad has been the sine qua non of nuclear force structure.
  — Jessica T. Mathews, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2020
• Because he wasn’t built for life on land, Bunky lacked the sine qua non of frogdom: the ability to jump.
  — Anne Fadiman, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Feb. 2023
• Simply put, the Lombardi is a paragon of form-meets-function design; it’s the sine qua non of trophies.
  — Jeffrey Bauman, ELLE Decor, 1 Feb. 2023
• Gunn wanted answers, and instruments were the sine qua non.
  — Quanta Magazine, 18 Apr. 2019
• Emotional, as well as factual, honesty is the sine qua non of a memoir.
  — Melanie Thernstrom, New York Times, 17 Apr. 2018
• Not just for electricity (the sine qua non of modernity), coal is the backbone of steel production and thus the enabling force of cities.
  — Jude Clemente, Forbes, 27 Oct. 2021
• For Ruth, those games—gambling at the casinos and racetrack, drinking in the saloons, enjoying nights at the brothels—were the sine qua non of spring training.
  — Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Apr. 2020
• While the interplay and performance of each member of this quartet are key, Cumberbatch’s Phil is the film’s sine qua non.
  — Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2021
• Tailored suits with sensible pumps are the sine qua non of congressional drag.
  — Elinor Burkett, Harper's BAZAAR, 3 Feb. 2017
• Patient consent is a sine qua non condition to patient care.
  — Joao Mendes-Roter, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2021
• In the Northeast elevation is the sine qua non for such a deluge; rain condenses from rising air, and mountain slopes give air a lift.
  — Anthony R. Wood, Philly.com, 31 Aug. 2017
• Cool nights are a sine qua non for producing the chemical reactions that coax leaf color out of hiding.
  — Anthony R. Wood, Philly.com, 26 Oct. 2017
• Fourth — and maybe most importantly — NIH funding is the sine qua non of success in the academic medical world.
  — Mark G. Shrime, STAT, 15 Sep. 2021
• Still, none of these titles is without challenges for a company that has made winning best picture the sine qua non of its movie ambitions.
  — Stephen Galloway, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Nov. 2019
• Lichtenstein got rid of the painterly patina that had been almost a sine qua non of avant-garde art since the Abstract Expressionists of the late nineteen-forties.
  — The New Yorker, 21 July 2021
• Knowing how to use one’s physical instrument is a sine qua non of both modeling and acting.
  — New York Times, 10 Nov. 2021
• The hybrids Sacai’s Abe pioneered years ago are the sine qua non of fashion today, but hers remain more convincing than anybody else’s.
  — Nicole Phelps, Vogue, 8 Mar. 2018
• The pivot for Fox News required it to fully commit to pushing conspiracy theories, the sine qua non of the Trumpian mindset.
  — Douglas Perry, OregonLive.com, 1 Nov. 2017
• Graduating from Harvard, contrary to what its students and administrators may think, is not the sine qua non of a good life.
  — Heather Mac Donald, WSJ, 13 June 2019
• For decades, antique Persians, hand-knotted from silk and often taking years or even decades to produce, were the gold standard of floor coverings for the swank, the sine qua non of Oriental rugs.
  — Jacob Bernstein, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2018
• Most important is how the Global Times frames the investigation: the sine qua non is finding patient zero.
  — WSJ, 11 June 2021
• That impressive tally of awards season wins leads inevitably to the subject of curation, which is, after all, the raison d’etre and sine qua non of all film festivals.
  — Steven Gaydos, Variety, 12 May 2022
• After all, free trade between the states has been the sine qua non of American nationhood since the ratification of the Constitution in 1787.
  — Cameron Hilditch, National Review, 20 Sep. 2020
• The Trump administration says accepting quotas is a sine qua non.
  — Tory Newmyer, Washington Post, 2 May 2018
• Stable money is a sine qua non of stable, prosperous, free societies.
  — Eric Grover, National Review, 19 Sep. 2020
• The successes of both these books illustrates something Rodgers and Sondheim were always the first to acknowledge — that collaboration, no matter how rocky, is the sine qua non of good work.
  — Charles McNultytheater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2022
• This has become Haugen’s emphatic sine qua non, her non-negotiable clause in every contract, whether business or personal.
  — Gabriela Riccardi, Quartz, 6 July 2023

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024