Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use exert in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Exert means to make use of, to apply, especially of something nonmaterial; to bring to bear. Example: “He considered exerting his influence on John to gain an advantage for himself.”

Examples of exert by meaning

verbTo make use of, to apply, especially of something nonmaterial; to bring to bear.

  • He considered exerting his influence on John to gain an advantage for himself.
  • Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
  • Di Matteo clearly saw Drogba's power as a potential threat to a Barcelona defence stripped of Gerard Pique - but he barely caught sight of goal in a first 45 minutes in which the Catalans exerted their technical superiority.2012 April 18, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 1-0 Barcelona”, in BBC Sport

verbTo put in vigorous action.

  • I exerted myself in today's training.

More sentences with exert

  • The hypnotist exerted a pull over his patients.From the entry pull
  • Vision exerts the most widely recognized nonacoustical influence on apparent sound position.2012, William A. Yost, Richard R. Fay, Human Psychophysics, page 172. From the entry nonacoustical
  • The introvert is everted by hydraulic pressure exerted by contraction of body muscles on the coelomic fluid.2009, Lynn Marguli, Michael J Chapman, Kingdoms and Domains: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth, →ISBN. From the entry introvert
  • Fifteen hundred dollars stolen through the extortion exerted through the credit bureaus and the FICO nonsense.2008, Robert Steele, Fico Is a Four Letter Word, →ISBN. From the entry fico
  • Virgin goddesses had no interest in exerting their powers in this way.2007, Bonnie MacLachlan, Virginity Revisited: Configurations of the Unpossessed Body, page 15. From the entry kourotrophic
  • The effort I exerted on behalf of the housekey had to be paradigmatic.2003, Michael Brodsky, Detour, →ISBN, page 113. From the entry housekey
  • The gravitational force exerted by a planet determines its surface gravity and escape velocity.1996, Thomas Arny, Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy, McGraw-Hill Science, page 74. From the entry escape velocity
  • "A moonlet within the ring system will exert a systematic torque on ring material."1981, Nature. From the entry moonlet
  • The palpebral pump exerts positive pressure on the fluid in the retropalpebral canal.1971, Everett R. Veirs, editor, The Lacrimal System: Proceedings, page 99. From the entry retropalpebral
  • The antagonistic action of hirudine may be exerted at several stages of the coagulation of the blood.1921, Joseph S. Hepburn, “Mechanism of the anticoagulating action of hirudine”, in Chemical Abstracts, volume 15, numbers 13-18, page 2449. From the entry hirudine
  • Still, at the movies, surrounded by a matinee crowd of older Swifties and their kids, the Swiftian portal exerted its pull.2025 October 16, Mitch Therieau, “Taylor Swift Is Our Biggest Cinematic Universe. But the Magic Is Fading.”, in The New York Times…. From the entry Swiftian
  • From Russia’s perspective, both objectives — exerting pressure on both Kharkiv and Kupyansk — are highly valuable and ultimately, interdependent.2024 September 20, “Reporting from Ukraine” (channel name), 20 Sep: COUNTDOWN BEGINS. Russians LOSE THE GRIP ON VOVCHANSK. | War in…. From the entry Kupyansk
  • Agonism of these receptors exerts important cholangioprotective and anti-inflammatory effects.2023, Petar Mamula, Judith R. Kelsen, Andrew B. Grossman, Robert N. Baldassano, Jonathan E. Markowitz, editors, Pediatric Inflammatory…. From the entry cholangioprotective
  • But in her speech, Truss said she would exert an “iron discipline” over public spending, hinting at possible austerity to come.2022 October 5, Rowena Mason, quoting Liz Truss, “Liz Truss promises ‘growth, growth and growth’ in protest-hit speech”, in The Guardian. From the entry iron
  • Good Lord Cromwell, stand my friend: exert yourself for Thomas Howard, who is your daily beadsman, your debtor for life.2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 499. From the entry beadsman
  • All these evidences suggest that PPAR γ ligands may exert a direct antifibrosis effect to prevent the corneal scar formation.2015 June 4, Su Zhang, Hongwei Gu, Nan Hu, “Role of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor γ in Ocular Diseases”, in Journal of…. From the entry antifibrosis
  • It is described as a prodrug since most of its antiestrogen effects are exerted through its hydroxylated metabolites 4-OH-tamoxifen and endoxifen.2015 July 16, “Impacts of the Glucuronidase Genotypes UGT1A4, UGT2B7, UGT2B15 and UGT2B17 on Tamoxifen Metabolism in Breast Cancer…. From the entry endoxifen
  • Highly malignant MSDACs that were derived from metastatic sites exhibited CSC status and exerted robust tumorosphere formations ex vivo.2015 July 10, Faizan H. Khan et al., “Acquired genetic alterations in tumor cells dictate the development of high-risk neuroblastoma and…. From the entry tumorosphere
  • In addition, the study said female judges might exert their influence in cases that were decided by multijudge federal appeals panels.2009 June 4, Neil A. Lewis, “Debate on Whether Female Judges Decide Differently Arises Anew”, in New York Times. From the entry multijudge
  • Rosler’s works exert a fervent but predictable didacticism, Ms.2008 February 15, Ken Johnson, “Striking When the Spirit Was Hot”, in New York Times. From the entry unorthodoxy
  • This is perhaps a convenient place to remark that a magnetic field exerts no force whatever on an electric charge.2007, Eugene N. Parker, Conversations on Electric and Magnetic Fields in the Cosmos, Princeton University Press, page 25. From the entry magnetic field
  • This influence is exerted from conscious, proactive effort.2007, Kevin Potts, Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites, Apress, →ISBN, page 286. From the entry ambient findability
  • Houses and photography sets seem to work better, he said, if “I exert a system of precision.” Ms.2007 May 10, Penelope Green, “Order and Chaos in a Single Heartbeat”, in New York Times. From the entry piler
  • The occultive properties of both discourses, ethics and politics, have exerted a dominant and disfiguring influence in Rousseau studies.2006, James L. O'Rourke, Sex, Lies, and Autobiography: The Ethics of Confession, page 191. From the entry occultive
  • The climbing action simply exerts power to the river bottom, an action that moves the craft in an appropriate direction.2004, Verne C. Huser, “Traveling upstream and down”, in On the River With Lewis and Clark (Environmental History series), volume 19, Texas…. From the entry river bottom
  • Coulomb’s law describes the electrostatic forces exerted between pairs of charges, but practical situations are rarely that simple.1995, Joseph M. Crowley, “Electrostatic fundamentals”, in Jen-Shih Chang, Arnold J. Kelly, Joseph M. Crowley, editors, Handbook of…. From the entry electrostatic force
  • Outside government, Uzbek and Islamic social mores – by no means always mutually compatible – have always exerted their own influences.1994, World Link, volumes 1–4, page 182. From the entry Uzbek
  • This drug exerts effects by relaxing the large skeletal muscles and by a direct effect on the brain.1979, Harold M. Silverman, Gilbert I. Simon, “Meprobamate”, in The Pill Book […] , 1st edition, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 187. From the entry meprobamate
  • Yet the topside exerts significant control over the lower ionosphere and hence also has an indirect effect on long-range radio communications.1964 March 12, C. D. Watkins, “Reaching the upper ionosphere by radar”, in New Scientist, page 686. From the entry topside
  • The Sith dagger was soaked in the dark side of the Force, hungry for blood and exerting an influence on anyone who held it.2022 June 29, Thomas Bacon, “Star Wars Finally Explains The Rise Of Skywalker's Sith Dagger”, in Screen Rant, archived from the original…. From the entry bloodlusted
  • The Moon also feeds our superstitions, believed by some to exert mysterious powers of influence on human behavior, especially during full Moon.2022, Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Earth & Moon: Cosmic perspectives”, in Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry full moon
  • In contrast, inhibitory neuromodulatory influences exerted by the pons on respiratory rhythmogenesis are stronger in the mutant, thereby explaining the breathing anomalies observed in vivo.2018 October 4, Christophe J. Dubois, Laura Cardoit, Veronika Schwarz, Marika Markkanen, Matti S. Airaksinen, Pavel Uvarov, John Simmers…. From the entry rhythmogenesis
  • The cowherd and beeherds did, certainly, but in Avalon there simply wasn't much reason to exert control over members of the animal kingdom.2016, Aprilynne Pike, Arabesque. From the entry beeherd
  • All this time I kept my gaze fixed on hers, an enormously difficult task given the gravitational pull exerted by her cleavage.2015, Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, →ISBN. From the entry cleavage
  • The Diaton tonometer measures the intrapalpebral IOP by exerting pressure on the peripheral cornea, outside the ablation, and on the sclerocorneal limbus.2015 June 8, Isabel Cacho et al., “Comparison of Intraocular Pressure before and after Laser In Situ Keratomileusis Refractive Surgery…. From the entry intrapalpebral
  • Eosinophils have long been traditionally thought to function solely as terminal effector cells in Th2 immune responses, including exerting helminthotoxic activity against parasites.2015 October 9, “Purinergic P2Y12 Receptor Activation in Eosinophils and the Schistosomal Host Response”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry helminthotoxic

Meaning of exert

  1. verb To make use of, to apply, especially of something nonmaterial; to bring to bear.
  2. verb To put in vigorous action.

Full definition of exert

Questions about exert in a sentence

How do you use exert in a sentence?
Exert is used as a verb. For example: “He considered exerting his influence on John to gain an advantage for himself.”
What is a short sentence with exert?
“I exerted myself in today's training.”
What does exert mean?
Exert means to make use of, to apply, especially of something nonmaterial; to bring to bear.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: exert (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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