How to Use tone-deaf in a Sentence
tone-deaf
adjective-
But Met Gala was a tone-deaf charade of excess and hypocrisy.
— Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY, 8 May 2024 -
It’s lined with palm trees that always seem out of place to me, tone-deaf in their presence.
— Hazlitt, 28 June 2022 -
Negishi’s death was announced this week, at the age of 100, which means a century of making the world a louder, more tone-deaf place.
— Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 16 Mar. 2024 -
This is an offensive and tone-deaf gesture that holds the people in contempt.
— Town & Country, 6 May 2023 -
Left-leaning users have called the campaign’s posts tone-deaf in light of the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.
— Makena Kelly, WIRED, 24 Feb. 2024 -
Lavender went on a listening tour with customers, who were quick to share that Intel had been tone-deaf.
— Fortune Editors, Fortune, 5 June 2024 -
Sure, the new ad is tone-deaf — after all, Apple rose to prominence by aligning itself with creative types.
— Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, 9 May 2024 -
Josh McDaniels must’ve been tone-deaf and inept, judging by the gusto Raiders players have shown since his dismissal.
— Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Dec. 2023 -
According to a 1968 Times report, MacRae was originally cast to play a tone-deaf lounge singer for a single episode.
— Malia Mendez, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2024 -
The commenters had an absolute field day with what many view as a tone-deaf and retrogressive fashion shoot.
— Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 28 Nov. 2023 -
To some who identify as huge fans of Swift – presumably the group being courted – the outcry is both tone-deaf and flattering.
— Andre Mouchard, Orange County Register, 4 Feb. 2024 -
The big picture: A lot of viewers see the ad as a tone-deaf portrait of how AI could suck the humanity out of a tradition — the fan note — that's supposed to be handwritten and heartfelt.
— Megan Morrone, Axios, 2 Aug. 2024 -
The tone-deaf response by college students and left-wing activists has been matched by statements from the halls of power that are equally callous toward Palestinian lives.
— TIME, 14 Oct. 2023 -
But the Me Too–riffing story line involving Alice, which makes for some rough riding throughout the season, gets off to a particularly rocky and tone-deaf start here.
— Larry Fitzmaurice, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2024 -
Large brands have made famously tone-deaf commercials that left viewers wondering why the decision-makers lacked eyes to see the problem.
— Gregory Crawford, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024 -
Democrats mocked the tone-deaf exercise, which came as GOP lawmakers push the nation to the brink of default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling without punishing cuts to social programs.
— Dave Goldiner New York Daily News (tns), al, 26 Jan. 2023 -
As an example, consider the word ‘tone-deaf,’ which is often used in professional settings to describe how a message won’t land.
— Kavitha Prabhakar, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2023 -
But from the pageantry of the tropical getaway, accusations of the trip being tone-deaf coupled with the memory of Tarte’s past faux pas have created a massive discussion online.
— Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 8 Mar. 2024 -
But critics have called it tone-deaf — with several marketing experts noting the campaign’s execution missed the mark.
— Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Fortune, 9 May 2024 -
These two aren’t alone delivering tone-deaf missives over virtual meetings.
— Allison Morrow, CNN, 20 Apr. 2023 -
Some anti-monarchists consider the gesture unnecessary and tone-deaf.
— Conor Murray, Forbes, 5 May 2023 -
The Defense secretary, a retired Army general, has shown himself to be politically tone-deaf.
— Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 15 Jan. 2024 -
But to travel so far (7,000 miles round-trip), with so many resulting carbon emissions, and to a place especially sensitive to the ravages of global warming, felt irresponsible and tone-deaf.
— Kate Siber, Outside Online, 8 Mar. 2023 -
Behind the incident was an innocent-enough but perhaps tone-deaf college student game called Senior Assassins.
— Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Apr. 2024 -
At the start of this year, even an internet company tellingly had enough of workforce flexibility, releasing a video that made headlines for its mandate’s tone-deaf messaging.
— Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 5 Feb. 2024 -
Criticism of the social media comments came from one resident, another felt the expense for the event was misguided and a third said the social media critics who labeled Highland Park tone-deaf know little about the city’s character.
— Steve Sadin, Chicago Tribune, 12 Sep. 2023 -
After all the statements and policy debates, the party has portrayed Abbott as tone-deaf, personally unsympathetic and cruel.
— Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, Washington Post, 2 May 2023 -
This is a failure of execution; Beijing has often been tone-deaf, leaving it particularly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of democratic politics.
— Audrye Wong, Foreign Affairs, 20 Apr. 2021 -
As such, introducing exclusionary hiring practices is not only tone-deaf but also counterproductive.
— Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tone-deaf.' 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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