How to use discretion in a sentence
40 example sentences · noun
Discretion means the quality of being discreet. Example: “Bob showed great discretion despite his knowledge of the affair.”
Examples of discretion by meaning
nounThe quality of being discreet.
- Bob showed great discretion despite his knowledge of the affair.
nounThe freedom to make one's own judgements.
- I leave that to your discretion.
nounThe authority to exercise one's own judgement in making decisions that have effect.
- The police came and searched us at their discretion because we were shouting at each other's faces.
More sentences with discretion
- Viewer discretion is advised for the uncensored versions of these videos.From the entry uncensored
- This program contains adult content. Parental discretion is advised.From the entry adult
- The standard is fairly lenient, so use your discretion.From the entry lenient
- NIH institutes vary in the amount of discretion exercised around the payline.2013, Robert J. Sternberg, Writing Successful Grant Proposals from the Top Down and Bottom Up, →ISBN. From the entry payline
- Perhaps that’s because discretion is a restaurateur’s asset—to dish untowardly would be bad for business.2007 January 14, Sara Dickerman, “Are You Being Served?”, in New York Times. From the entry untowardly
- Johnson III is the very model of a Boston Brahmin billionaire—a pillar of Yankee discretion and probity.2005 August 10, Steven Pearlstein, “A Boston Brahmin's Brawls With Donaldson”, in Washington Post, page D01. From the entry Boston Brahmin
- Army use: To perform a task at one’s own leisure or by using one’s discretion.2005 June 19, Hong Xinyi, The Sunday Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore…. From the entry own time, own target
- A holdback provision gives the trustee discretion to hold back funds upon the occurrence of specified events.1998, Sidney Kess, Barbara Weltman ·, KESS on Financial and Estate Planning, page 77. From the entry holdback
- With grace and discretion, I start to shut the parlor door.1998, Giose Rimanelli, Luigi Fontanella, Hot Dog: A Novel, page 32. From the entry neverthemore
- They should be used in spondylarthropathy therapy only with great discretion.1993, Bulletin on the Rheumatic Diseases. From the entry spondylarthropathy
- A judge, more freely than a jury, can exercise discretion uncouched in technical legalities.1968, Loyola University of Los Angeles law review: Volumes 1-3. From the entry uncouched
- He sun-baked - with discretion till his skin had peeled and given him a harder cuticle.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 90. From the entry vitiate
- She had established a character for humility, discretion, noiselessness and religion which Mrs.1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 193. From the entry humility
- Managers do not have discretion to apply their own – this applies to all Prezzo Group restaurants and brands.”2018 March 24, “True or false? 'If you do a runner, the waiter has to pay your bill'”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry walk-out
- All implantation procedures were performed under analgosedation with the applied drugs left to the discretion of the respective physician.2015 July 25, “ICD Shock, Not Ventricular Fibrillation, Causes Elevation of High Sensitive Troponin T after Defibrillation Threshold…. From the entry analgosedation
- What was discretion but chickenheartedness and a capitulation to age?2013, Stephen Dobyns, Saratoga Strongbox. From the entry tweedle
- Judges often became the recipients of spontaneous unburdenings, which could happen only when the tellers already trusted their listeners' discretion.2013, Phyllis Ann Karr, At Amberleaf Fair, page 84. From the entry unburdening
- Similar to statutory exclusion mechanisms, prosecutorial discretion is often limited to a subset of cases based on age and offense characteristics.2012, Elena Grigorenko, Handbook of Juvenile Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry, →ISBN, page 97. From the entry statutory exclusion
- Hillary adored James, had no doubt about his allegiance or discretion—although she hadn't looped him in until now.2010 January 11, Read Excerpt: Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, ABC News (retrieved 24 April 2013). From the entry loop in
- The student-athlete code of conduct says punishment for all nonfelony crimes is left to the discretion of the coach.2008 January 13, The Associated Press, “N.C.A.A. Clears Pope to Play”, in New York Times. From the entry nonfelony
- The three occupation powers had complete discretion over dismantlings, however.2004, Detlef Junker, Philipp Gassert, Wilfried Mausbach, The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War. From the entry dismantling
- Relevancy not always an open sesame having in mind the over-all authority and discretion of the trial judge.1963, William J. Palmer, Trial Tactics in California, page 57. From the entry open sesame
- How is one to avoid giving anything short of complete discretion to the authorities to telish anyone they like?1955, John Rawls, “Two Concepts of Rules”, in The Philosophical Review, LXIV, № 1, page 12. From the entry telish
- P. for the time being in his absolute discretion.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 5: Lotus Eaters]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 80. From the entry pp
- Discretion is a lost art with the memorist and we would hail its return with joy and relief.1901, “A Plea for Autobiography”, in Carina Campbell Eaglesfield, editor, Books Triumphant: Essays on Literature, page 39. From the entry memorist
- This section allows employees, at the employer’s discretion, to convert FSA and HRA balances into an HSA contribution upon enrolling in an HDHP-HSA.2025 May, “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill”, in United States House Committee on Ways & Means, page 20. From the entry FSA
- Ah, Luna! you may hide your face; And, Doctor, you're a hopeless case, If you allow yourself to chase The silly moonbeams without discretion.2023, Charles Billingslea, The Addison Reunion Papers, page 216. From the entry chase moonbeams
- The undersellers resented the restrictions which prevented them from lowering the price to customers at their discretion, which might result in more sales overall.2010, Isabella Alexander, Copyright Law and the Public Interest in the Nineteenth Century, page 116. From the entry underseller
- Did we not pass an Act last year which passported the money directly through to the schools and gave local authorities very little discretion?2002, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords, The Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: House of Lords official report. From the entry passport
- People find it privately rational to invest resources in efforts to secure differentially favored access to the economic power inherent in bureaucratic discretion.2001, James M[cGill] Buchanan, Choice, Contract, and Constitutions (The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan; 16), Indianapolis, Ind.…. From the entry rent-seeking
- The established church won the battle with the reformed congregation in Pomfret, but only because its pastor had an unquenchable thirst and no discretion.1945, Clarence Mertoun Webster, Town Meeting Country. From the entry wilkinsonite
- A tradition, or whatever it was, that had flowered prelusively in the Princess herself—well, Amerigo's very discretions were his way of taking account of it.1904, Henry James, The Golden Bowl. From the entry prelusively
- The idea that administrators exercise authority as ‘laws unto themselves’ is one that applies in the first instance to exercises of discretion rather than to interpretations of law.2011, Evan Fox-Decent, “Administrative Law as Solicitude—Reasonable Decision-making”, in Sovereignty’s Promise: The State as Fiduciary…. From the entry law unto oneself
- The discretion of social conversation, even among friends, is exceeded only by the discretion of “the deep six,” that grave wherein nothing is mentioned at all.2004, Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, New Directions Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry deep six
- Bridge’s article should be prefaced with a warning to readers to let everyone know that data he collects can be estimated, altered, and made up at the author's discretion.1993 May 1, Harrison Cheung, “Letters: Geac and the “Marketplace””, in Library Journal, volume 118, number 8, page 10. From the entry pseudoarticle
- In their ethopoeias of the ideal lover, de la Torre, Ribera, and Luduefia emphasize, as we have seen, eloquence, good physical proportions, youth, elegance, discretion and honesty.1976, E. Michael Gerli, Alfonso Martínez de Toledo, →ISBN, page 115. From the entry ethopoeia
- Despite more liberal attitudes and legislation in some parts of the United States, discretion still compels thousands of women annually to fly to Japan for the operations.1969, The Asia Letter. From the entry abortion tour
Meaning of discretion
- noun The quality of being discreet.
- noun The ability to make wise choices or decisions.
- noun The freedom to make one's own judgements.
Questions about discretion in a sentence
- How do you use discretion in a sentence?
- Discretion is used as a noun. For example: “Bob showed great discretion despite his knowledge of the affair.”
- What is a short sentence with discretion?
- “I leave that to your discretion.”
- What does discretion mean?
- Discretion means the quality of being discreet.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: discretion (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 discretion in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/discretion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
