How to Use unreliable in a Sentence

unreliable

adjective
  • And then he, too, is gone, as shifty and unreliable as his words.
    Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 14 June 2024
  • Even the words that did present themselves could seem odd and unreliable.
    Graham Swift, The New Yorker, 14 Nov. 2022
  • The problem, the researchers said, is that many of those projects are unreliable and overpromise.
    Nicole Goodkind, Fortune, 7 Feb. 2022
  • The staff warned me not to expect it again; supply was very unreliable.
    Ahmed Ali Akbar, Chicago Tribune, 16 Oct. 2024
  • Both movies open on a death — one real, the other a hoax — and seek to take us back through time with the aid of an unreliable narrator.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 Mar. 2023
  • Much of what the two men say about what’s happening in the rest of their lives is unreliable, based in fantasy or in lies.
    Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2022
  • If the eye is an unreliable narrator, what are we left with?
    Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, 30 Jan. 2023
  • One of the most common is that the output of these systems is simply unreliable.
    James Vincent, The Verge, 5 Jan. 2023
  • But the company does not use fact-checks to keep ads off of pages with unreliable or harmful claims.
    Craig Silverman, ProPublica, 29 Oct. 2022
  • But the game’s use of these gestures felt awkward and unreliable, and the experience was short and on-rails.
    Adi Robertson, The Verge, 27 Sep. 2023
  • Rising sophomores Frankie Collins and Kobe Bufkin played bit roles for most of the season and proved unreliable beyond the 3-point line.
    Michael Cohen, Detroit Free Press, 29 Apr. 2022
  • In any case, the Giants are simply unreliable right now.
    Richard Morin, USA TODAY, 16 Dec. 2022
  • Once known as one of the best defenders in the sport, Rizzo’s defense became unreliable towards the end of the season.
    Ryan Canfield, Fox News, 2 Nov. 2024
  • The reports have come from only a small number of users, most of them talking about it on Reddit, which can be an unreliable source.
    Boone Ashworth, WIRED, 24 Feb. 2024
  • The notion that there is some sort of immutable gold standard for truthful acting is deeply unreliable: cometh the hour, cometh the actor.
    Simon Callow, The New York Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2022
  • Then the Rangers’ bullpen (which at first had pitched well in relief of starter Nathan Eovaldi) reverted back to its unreliable self.
    Shawn McFarland, Dallas News, 10 Sep. 2023
  • So far this week, the Diamondbacks have not pitched well and their defense has been unreliable at best and sloppy at worst.
    Nick Piecoro, The Arizona Republic, 17 May 2022
  • Jake Nolan was a very unreliable narrator of this event.
    CBS News, 5 Nov. 2022
  • The bloodline can be an unreliable thing, and cruel sometimes.
    Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 29 Feb. 2024
  • As unreliable as he was unwieldy (at 25 feet long), Bruce was allergic to salt, named after a lawyer, and unable to float on his own.
    Debby Wolfinsohn, EW.com, 16 Nov. 2022
  • In the end the many unreliable accounts don’t detract from the forcefulness of the author’s portrayal.
    Barbara Spindel, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Feb. 2022
  • But telling the world’s poor to live with unreliable, expensive, weak power is an insult.
    Bjorn Lomborg, Forbes, 10 Nov. 2022
  • It was based on a police lineup and voice identification, which the claims board said has been shown to be unreliable.
    Scott Bauer, USA TODAY, 15 Apr. 2022
  • The Census Bureau itself says the numbers for Block 1002 and tens of thousands of others are unreliable and should be ignored.
    New York Times, 21 Apr. 2022
  • Peter Van Sant: And, so, your bottom line is, is that this evidence is unreliable now?
    Peter Van Sant, CBS News, 28 Oct. 2023
  • During the trial, Gibbs had argued that his client was not the shooter and witnesses were unreliable.
    Jasmine Hilton, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2024
  • And persuading homeowners to take the leap into solar isn’t an easy sell, even in places like Texas that have a shaky and unreliable power grid.
    Bychristiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 20 Nov. 2023
  • On the driver’s side window was a huge, unreliable speaker hanging crookedly from a hook provided by the Newark Drive-In.
    Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2023
  • Now, after decades of slow and unreliable service, nearly every house in town is connected to a state-of-the-art fiber-optic network.
    Cameron Pugh, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Nov. 2024
  • The documentary references Oliva, and questions why he has been eliminated as a suspect, even with the unreliable DNA evidence.
    Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2024

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