Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use expendable in a sentence

16 example sentences · adjective, noun

Expendable means able to be expended; not inexhaustible. Example: “Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.”

Examples of expendable by meaning

adjectiveAble to be expended; not inexhaustible.

  • Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.

adjectiveDesigned for a single use; not reusable.

  • The anti-aircraft rocket is fired from an expendable launch platform.

adjectiveNot essential or mandatory in order to achieve a goal.

  • The research department was deemed expendable, and its funding was not renewed.

adjectiveRegarded as not worth preserving or saving; able to be sacrificed.

  • In the internecine rivalries of large corporations, whole departments may become expendable in the execution of one executive's power play.
  • He was expendable, like commodities past their use.1997, G. Cajetan Luna, Youths Living with HIV: Self-Evident Truths, page 10
  • The Taunton-Minehead line (now managed by the West Somerset Railway) was considered much more expendable.2020 April 8, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was at risk”, in Rail, page 69

nounAn expendable person or object; usually used in the plural.

  • Private Johnson was afraid the Lieutenant considered him an expendable, since he was always picked as point man.

More sentences with expendable

  • We're expendable, even more so than the average Rim Runner officer.2012, A. Bertram Chandler, Ride the Star Winds, →ISBN. From the entry come a gutser
  • The world is filled with doodleheads who think that any program which isn’t theirs is expendable.1990, Peter Utz, “Editing a Videotape”, in Create Excellent Video, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, →ISBN, section “When You’re…. From the entry doodlehead
  • An expendable rocket will launch a robotic vehicle, Astrobot, equipped with manipulators and the experimental equipment.1989, Popular Mechanics. From the entry astrobot
  • The gravity of this issue is so great that I must consider my job expendable.1988 December 13, Julian Abele Cook, Jr., District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, quoting…. From the entry gravity
  • Canon Tom may have provided the Church with a touch of class, but when the chips were down, he was expendable.1993, Edward Toman, chapter 9, in Shambles Corner, London: Flamingo, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 125. From the entry shenanigans
  • We were available, vulnerable, and expendable for political grist.1985 August 24, Robert Butler, “Sex More Punished Than Murder”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 7, page 5. From the entry grist
  • Red Shirts are characters with only a little more personality than Random Grunts, but they are expendable, and you can expect them to get killed.2009, David Perry, Rusel DeMaria, David Perry on Game Design: A Brainstorming Toolbox, page 242. From the entry red shirt
  • "Red shirts" were the expendable members of the crew, and viewers were never really surprised if the poor innocents were snuffed by the episode's end.2000, Terry J. Erdmann, Paula M. Block, Deep Space Nine Companion, →ISBN, page 44. From the entry red shirt
  • Utterly embracable, consumable, and expendable, they expect little, for they know that the fragile ego of the playboy cannot endure the threat of any strain or commitment.1970, Marshall McLuhan, Culture Is Our Business. From the entry embracable

Meaning of expendable

  1. adjective Able to be expended; not inexhaustible.
  2. adjective Designed for a single use; not reusable.
  3. adjective Not essential or mandatory in order to achieve a goal.

Full definition of expendable

Questions about expendable in a sentence

How do you use expendable in a sentence?
Expendable is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Oil and other expendable resources are frequently the subject of military disputes.”
What is a short sentence with expendable?
“He was expendable, like commodities past their use.”
What does expendable mean?
Expendable means able to be expended; not inexhaustible.

Source and license

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