Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use contemptuous in a sentence

12 example sentences · adjective

Contemptuous means showing contempt; expressing disdain; showing a lack of respect. Example: “I don't know that guy, but he just gave me a contemptuous look.”

Examples of contemptuous by meaning

adjectiveShowing contempt; expressing disdain; showing a lack of respect.

  • I don't know that guy, but he just gave me a contemptuous look.

More sentences with contemptuous

  • Every step—a light click of the heel and then a springy step, optimistic, perhaps a bit contemptuous.2005, Adam Zachary Newton, The Elsewhere: On Belonging at a Near Distance, →ISBN, page 270. From the entry springy
  • The colloquial form of the city’s name thus entered the language as a contemptuous epithet.2002, Rachel Crawford, Poetry, enclosure, and the vernacular landscape, 1700–1830, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 160. From the entry brummagem
  • He was sarcastic, downputting and in every way wonderfully contemptuous of Brian's self-righteous chest-pounding.1994 May 27, Carl Beaudry, “Hasta Luigi!”, in alt.society.generation-x (Usenet). From the entry downputting
  • It is usually taken as a mildly contemptuous but good-humoured name for an unskilled man or novice.1967, “30 Nov. 10/8”, in Times. From the entry nig-nog
  • For a second our eyes met and he gave me a contemptuous smile, then he spieled again.1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 433. From the entry spiel
  • A small, askant, almost contemptuous smile was on her mouth as she chewed.1934, Kay Boyle, My Next Bride, Virago, published 1986, page 53. From the entry askant
  • If you're a numerophile and a pedant, then you may fret over my somewhat contemptuous handling of significant digits below.2020 March 23, Phil Plait, “Why do we have leap days?”, in SYFY WIRE, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2022. From the entry numerophile
  • Some words, on the other hand, displayed a frank and contemptuous understanding of the real nature of Oceanic society.1949, Orwell, George, 1903-1950, Nineteen eighty-four, →OCLC. From the entry prolefeed
  • "I call that a dirty-looking pipe," he added, blowing a contemptuous whiff in the direction of Limpet's pipe.1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 12. From the entry whiff
  • He was authoritarian but he was also a Mama’s boy, and his mouth, as I said, was a little soft and a lot contemptuous.1994, Jack Erdmann with Larry Kearney, chapter 2, in Whiskey’s Children: An Inspiring True Story of Struggle and Redemption, New York…. From the entry mama's boy
  • And as Germaine Greer points out, the “lay,” if finally granted, or an endless series of them, tends to make the womanhating man even more hateful and contemptuous.1972, Konrad Kellen, The Coming Age of Woman Power, page 133. From the entry womanhating

Meaning of contemptuous

  1. adjective Showing contempt; expressing disdain; showing a lack of respect.
  2. adjective Worthy of contempt; contemptible.

Full definition of contemptuous

Questions about contemptuous in a sentence

How do you use contemptuous in a sentence?
Contemptuous is used as an adjective. For example: “I don't know that guy, but he just gave me a contemptuous look.”
What is a short sentence with contemptuous?
“A small, askant, almost contemptuous smile was on her mouth as she chewed.”
What does contemptuous mean?
Contemptuous means showing contempt; expressing disdain; showing a lack of respect.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contemptuous (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 contemptuous in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/contemptuous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.