Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use articulate in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, adjective, noun

Articulate means to make clear or effective. Example: “I wish he’d articulate his words more clearly.”

Examples of articulate by meaning

verbTo speak clearly; to enunciate.

  • I wish he’d articulate his words more clearly.

verbTo explain; to put into words; to make something specific.

  • I like this painting, but I can’t articulate why.
  • It’s not just that Trump’s voters are articulating the same ideas.2018 October 24, Jeremy Diamond, “Trump’s secret weapon: Legions of supporters spreading his message”, in CNN, archived from the original...

verbTo bend or hinge something at intervals, or to allow or build something so that it can bend.

  • an articulated bus

verbTo attack a note, as by tonguing, slurring, bowing, etc.

  • Articulate that passage heavily.

verbTo form a joint or connect by joints.

  • The lower jaw articulates with the skull at the temporomandibular joint.

adjectiveSpeaking in a clear and effective manner; having both good articulation and good elocution.

  • She’s a bright, articulate young woman.

adjectiveConsisting of segments united by joints.

  • jointed articulate animals
  • The robot arm was articulate in two directions.

adjectiveDistinctly marked off.

  • an articulate period in history

More sentences with articulate

  • I was without formal education but was well read and articulate.From the entry without
  • His experiences debating made him a more articulate communicator, not least because the topics were often controversial.From the entry not least
  • Her writing was facile and articulate.From the entry facile
  • People who “swallow” the dictionary are articulate, eloquent and verbally dextrous.2011, Adrian Furnham, Managing People in a Downturn, →ISBN. From the entry swallow the dictionary
  • Are you promoltigating your exorditation or articulating superficial sentimentality and amicable philosophical observation?2006, Christine Matzke, Geoffrey V. Davis, Of Minstrelsy and Masks: The Legacy of Ezenwa-Ohaeto in Nigerian Writing, Rodopi, →ISBN, page 122. From the entry platitudeness
  • We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.2002, Slavoj Žižek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real, →ISBN, page 2. From the entry unfreedom
  • The Obolellida and the basic articulate stock, the billingsellaceans, appear later in the lower Cambrian.1979, Michael Robert House, The Origin of major invertebrate groups, page 235. From the entry billingsellacean
  • "Sho," she muttered, allowing soft, discarnate voices to articulate and move on.1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 79. From the entry discarnate
  • As a rule Lady Anne's displeasure became articulate and markedly voluble after four minutes of introductory muteness.1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Reticence of Lady Anne”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co.…. From the entry voluble
  • Rationalism insists that all our beliefs ought ultimately to find for themselves articulate grounds.1902, William James, “Lecture 3”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London…. From the entry rationalism
  • At the symphysis, the entopterygoid articulates with its counterpart through a striated articular surface which is oval in outline.2015 December 17, “A Fish Assemblage from the Middle Eocene from Libya (Dur At-Talah) and the Earliest Record of Modern African Fish…. From the entry entopterygoid
  • Like PSY, the Tractate articulates a pleromatic system in the sense of a configuration of the divine sphere.2014, Cyril O'Regan, Gnostic Return in Modernity, →ISBN, page 119. From the entry pleromatic
  • In my meeting with Dahlia, I found myself having a private countertransference thought which I certainly did not articulate to her.2007, Brett Kahr, Sex and the Psyche, Penguin, published 2008, page 295. From the entry countertransference
  • The 'besaid' are articulate with words and with silence.2003, Philip Auslander, Performance: Media and technology. From the entry besay
  • For ecopoets language is an instrument that the poet continually refurbishes to articulate his originary experience in nature.2002, David W Gilcrest, Greening the lyre: environmental poetics and ethics. From the entry ecopoet
  • Ouch, Abernathy thought, SET, targets, white papers, articulate, strategies, deployed.1991, Stephen Baetz, Change Is: a Personal Guide for Organizational Change, page 26. From the entry bizbabble
  • A larger number of plays than novels seem not to immasculate the female reader in the precise way Fetterley articulates.1990, Gayle Austin, Feminist Theories for Dramatic Criticism, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 37. From the entry immasculate
  • It is the first articulate statement, in book form, of a sector of the Neorican mentality: the proindependence, New York‐born militants.1973 October 7, “The Puerto Ricans”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry Neorican
  • Because he is liberal, temperate and articulate, and because he freely recognizes past Big Business abuses, Wendell L.1940 March 18, “Life on the Newsfronts of the World: Big Government”, in Life, retrieved 13 Dec 2011, page 26. From the entry big government
  • Using these simple verbal jiu-jitsu moves will help you articulate the concerns underlying your complaints and critiques while building stronger relationships and culture.2019 March 26, Hanna Hart, “Phrasing Matters: How To Be A Constructive Critic”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 27 Oct 2025. From the entry jiu-jitsu
  • The OWS movement splintered after Mayor Michael Bloomberg had police raid Zuccotti Park and it has been unable to articulate a clear message since.2013, “Distracted Americans unruffled by OWS”, in Real Estate Weekly, 58(48), 09/18/2013, page A18. From the entry ows
  • Similar condition was described by Mirande in the triportheids Agoniates Müller & Troschel, Clupeacharax Pearson, and Engraulisoma Castro, where the pelvic bones also articulate.2013 January 2, André Luiz Netto-Ferreira, “A New Miniature Characid (Ostariophysi: Characiformes: Characidae), with Phylogenetic Position…. From the entry triportheid
  • Jack glances at you sidelong while the middle-aged spookmaster is fumbling to articulate whatever it is he's got stuck in his mind.2007, Charles Stross, Halting State. From the entry spookmaster
  • Spine pig, spine pig, say me true, how your flesh befits a you so articulate in joint as to sharpen to your point.2006, Wayne Clifford, The Book of Were. From the entry spine pig
  • The lower jaw articulates against the suspensorium, a series of pairs of bones comprised of the palatines, endopterygoids, metapterygoids, ectopterygoids, quadrates, symplectics and hyomandibulars.2004, Brad Pusey, Freshwater Fishes of North-eastern Australia. From the entry endopterygoid
  • Indisputably, Wojnarowicz is a writer and artist who articulates the vision of a future where judgementalism is the cannibal of the past.1991 May 4, Mary Dowd, “Risky Business”, in Gay Community News, page 7. From the entry judgmentalism
  • Only in the Cotylosauria primitively do the paroccipitals exist as distinct bones in the adult, articulating with the exoccipitals, supraoccipital, proötics, stapes, tabulars, and quadrates.1925, Samuel Wendell Williston, “Chapter 1”, in The Osteology of the Reptiles. From the entry paroccipital
  • Still more Actinopterygian is the skeleton of the pelvic fin; here only four bony radials are preserved, separately articulating with the pelvic girdle.1909, Edwin Stephen Goodrich, edited by Ray Lankester, A Treatise on Zoology: Part IX: Vertebrata Craniata: (First Fascicle: Cyclostomes…. From the entry actinopterygian
  • Murrow's later death from lung cancer was both tragic and ironic, for during World War II Murrow had been an articulate opponent of meretricious balance in reporting.2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, chapter 1, in Merchants of Doubt. From the entry meretricious
  • We need an approach that allows Jesus to articulate a message that can be reasonably attributed to a temple-going Jewish person of the first century CE.2006, Jonathan Klawans, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple, page 236. From the entry temple-going

Meaning of articulate

  1. verb To make clear or effective.
  2. verb To speak clearly; to enunciate.
  3. verb To explain; to put into words; to make something specific.

Full definition of articulate

Questions about articulate in a sentence

How do you use articulate in a sentence?
Articulate is used as a verb, adjective and noun. For example: “I wish he’d articulate his words more clearly.”
What is a short sentence with articulate?
“an articulated bus”
What does articulate mean?
Articulate means to make clear or effective.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: articulate (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.

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