Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use alienate in a sentence

27 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Alienate means estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign. Example: “Much of the language used when discussing wedding planning is heteronormative, which can alienate homosexual couples.”

Examples of alienate by meaning

verbTo estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before...

  • Their chief importance, and that of the whole left wing of the Labour movement, was the part they played in alienating the middle classes from Socialism.1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn
  • Commentators saw the strike as likely to alienate the public and unlikely to win significant changes in terms of closures and job losses.2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39

More sentences with alienate

  • Much of the language used when discussing wedding planning is heteronormative, which can alienate homosexual couples.From the entry heteronormative
  • A corporate takeover of this project is likely to alienate the user base.From the entry user base
  • Senior citizens are our core market at present, and we can't afford to alienate them as we explore other markets.From the entry market
  • There was something distinctly low-key, even wilfully alienating about the band’s performance.2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian. From the entry clatter
  • A wage scale should reflect job and performance differences fairly, or else firms risk alienating their staff.2007 November 26, Laura Blue, “Success Depends on Others Failing”, in Time. From the entry wage scale
  • Henry knew better than to alienate one of the Acme secretaries.1968 July, Stan Dryer, “The Fully Automated Love Life of Henry Keanridge”, in Playboy Magazine, page 152. From the entry acme
  • Education docs not alienate the youth from their class and rural roots.[1966 January, Soong Ching Ling, Yuan Ling, “Sixteen Years of Liberation”, in China Reconstructs, volume XV, number I, China Welfare…. From the entry Taigu
  • He was a Stealth Trumper and Sorta Trumper who took pains not to offend or alienate Forever Trumpers.2021 November 3, Frank Bruni, “There’s a New Wizard of Oz. It’s Donald Trump.”, in The New York Times. From the entry Trumper
  • Some of my friends drop everyone out as soon as they get a girlfriend, and they alienate people.2017, Marcel Somerville, Dr Marcel's Little Book of Big Love: Your Guide to Finding Love, the Island Way, London: Blink Publishing, →ISBN…. From the entry pie
  • A wrenching breakup is narrated via Facebook, GChat, Skype and a number of other mediating and alienating applications.2014 February 7, Teddy Wayne, “The 7-Day Digital Diet”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry gchat
  • The challenge in all of this, Booth acknowledges, is to bring new customers to Volvo without alienating its core constituency.2007 December 2, Bryce G. Hoffman, “Ford takes risk going upscale with Volvo”, in The Detroit News. From the entry core constituency
  • If he was too extreme, he’d alienate me.2002, Apolo Anton Ohno, A Journey: The Autobiography of Apolo Anton Ohno, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, →ISBN. From the entry good cop-bad cop
  • If he was too soft, I’d alienate him.2002, Apolo Anton Ohno, A Journey: The Autobiography of Apolo Anton Ohno, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, →ISBN. From the entry good cop-bad cop
  • I thought that my refusing Barnard would alienate Botha, and decided that such a tack was too risky.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 637. From the entry tack
  • His book is about the conditions for requisite institutions and how to change antirequisite, “alienating, paranoiagenic, entropic” organizations.1977 October, Noel Tichy, “A General Theory of Bureaucracy (Book review)”, in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. From the entry antirequisite
  • In such a situation there would be a danger of alienating one linguistic group by a uniglot language policy.1956, The Educand, number 3, University of Western Australia, page 55. From the entry uniglot
  • Oman could not afford to alienate Iran, given that its territorial waters overlap those of Iran in the strategic Straits of Hormuz.2018, Dilip Hiro, Cold War In The Islamic World: Saudi Arabia, Iran And The Struggle For Supremacy, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC…. From the entry Straits of Hormuz
  • Niyazov has stepped up Turkmenization of society, including the introduction of a stringent language law which could alienate both non-Turkmen and Turkmen alike.2004, Sally Cummings, Power and Change in Central Asia, Routledge, →ISBN. From the entry Turkmenization
  • The refusal of the national march committee to help local groups pay off their debts is alienating to local and national foundations.1988 February 14, Judy Andler, Angela Bowen, Meani McAlister, Nancy Moniz, Nancy Wechsler, Hillary Smith, John Roberts, “Return The…. From the entry unresponsiveness
  • Instead of blaming MLM "huns," we should direct our anger at the companies that are knowingly putting so many people in debt and alienating them from their communities.2024 April 18, Aimee Pearcy, “Why Reddit and TikTok are hating on MLM 'huns'”, in Business Insider. From the entry hun
  • Homophobic public discourse, ecocritical norms, and queer-theoretical tendencies have all had the effect of alienating "the queer" from "the natural" and "the environment," conceptually and otherwise.2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 23. From the entry ecocritical
  • (17–20) No longer trying to Byronize her heroines only to discover that female commitments alienate them from the romance of Byronic alienation, Hemans makes Byron accountable to her values.2016 February 2, N. Sweet, J. Melnyk, Felicia Hemans: Reimagining Poetry in the Nineteenth Century, Springer, →ISBN, page 172. From the entry Byronize
  • Any minister to whom it might occur that a change would be desirable would certainly be brought up short at the prospect of alienating the heir to the throne.2012, Paul P. Bernard, Joseph II and Bavaria, →ISBN. From the entry bring up short
  • If queernormative spaces keep people constantly on guard, fearful others will attack them for a wrong move, then those spaces will be alienating, even for those who stay within them.2017, Jason Orne, Boystown: Sex and Community in Chicago, page 233. From the entry queernormative
  • Such media and public hostility often results in donor organisations seeking to be discreet, as opposed to overtly supporting GTR communities, for fear of alienating other sectors of the community.2014, Susan Alexander, Margaret Greenfields, “Below the radar: Gypsy and Traveller self-help communities and the role of the Travellers…. From the entry GTR

Meaning of alienate

  1. adjective Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign.
  2. noun A stranger; an alien.
  3. verb To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.

Full definition of alienate

Questions about alienate in a sentence

How do you use alienate in a sentence?
Alienate is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “Much of the language used when discussing wedding planning is heteronormative, which can alienate homosexual couples.”
What is a short sentence with alienate?
“If he was too extreme, he’d alienate me.”
What does alienate mean?
Alienate means estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alienate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use alienate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/alienate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.