Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use formidable in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective

Formidable means causing fear, dread, awe, or discouragement as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive feature; commanding respect; causing wonder or astonishment. Example: “The person who ran against her in the last election proved to be a formidable opponent.”

Examples of formidable by meaning

adjectiveDifficult to defeat or overcome.

  • a formidable opponent
  • Otherwise we will one day be confronted with the most formidable enemy that has ever existed in the history of the world.1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 577
  • Sam Allardyce, the West Ham manager, will be acutely aware that when the stakes are high, Blackpool are simply formidable.2012 May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2–3 on agg): Match report”, in Tony Gallagher, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London...

More sentences with formidable

  • The person who ran against her in the last election proved to be a formidable opponent.From the entry opponent
  • A formidable case, but the matter is not as simple as it appears.2025 December 12, Tom Hercules Davies, “Horses, Wheels, Languages: Greek, Mesopotamian and Indic Epic on the Eurasian Steppe”, in The…. From the entry fr.
  • He has been imperious since the opening game at Brentford, establishing a formidable partnership with Gabriel.2022 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham: Gunners show identity & direction in outstanding derby win”, in BBC Sport. From the entry imperious
  • Against a formidable side like South Africa, the chances of that happening is very low.2015 June 28, Minhaz Uddin Khan, “Over-enthusiasm undermining Tigers' success”, in Dhaka Tribune, volume 3, number 76, page 26. From the entry Banglawash
  • An old Ford was going down a road that had a formidable middelmannetjie (hump down the middle).2005, Shirley Bell, The Happy Warrior: The Story of T. C. Robertson, Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: T. C. Robertson Trust, →ISBN…. From the entry middelmannetjie
  • He berserks, slashes, burns—oh, he’s formidable when he wants a piece of ground.2002, Pamela Kaufman, The Book of Eleanor: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, page 240. From the entry berserk
  • This one-dimensionality makes Germinal a formidable national monument, but not much cop as a film.1997, Jonathan Romney, Short Orders: Film Writing. From the entry not much cop
  • Even Mrs Clinton, the heavy hitter, will need every ounce of her formidable powers.1993 January 28, Rupert Cornwell, “Hillary called to cure ills of US health system”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 20 Aug 2014. From the entry heavy hitter
  • How could they possibly hope to encircle this most formidable of enemies?1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 94. From the entry Kutuzov
  • The avoidance of collisions by manned vehicles moving at these 'translumic' speeds presents a formidable problem.1965, William F. Hilton, Manned Satellites, Their Achievements and Potentialities, page 131. From the entry translumic
  • One of the most formidable of the heretical movements of the Middle Ages was Lollardy or Lollery.1949, William Dale Morris, The Christian Origins of Social Revolt, page 25. From the entry divers
  • Hawks, falcons and other raptors share traits that make them formidable hunters.1946, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Wildlife in North Carolina, N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission, page 28. From the entry midair
  • The Japanese constructed a formidable naval base at Mako (Makung Harbor), on Penghu, largest of the islands.1946, PESCADORES (The American Annual An Encyclopedia of the Events of 1945), Americana Corporation, page 593. From the entry Penghu
  • "You can count me in." "It may be really rather formidable.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Introduces Some Very Physical Phenomena”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no.…. From the entry righto
  • What worried me was the sense of being up against something inhumanly formidable and wise and strong.1919, John Buchan, Mr. Standfast. From the entry chuck up
  • She would be a formidable queen when her time came.2022 October 20, Morrigan Gaines, Echoes of Bellek, Morrigan Gaines, →ISBN, page 19. From the entry Aabria
  • Even more incredibly, he defended it last month, brushing aside the formidable world No 1, Michael van Gerwen, in the process.2019 December 8, Jonathan Liew, “Gerwyn Price: ‘I was painted as the pantomime villain of darts’”, in The Guardian. From the entry get into someone's head
  • It's that he has a combination of many often mediocre abilities that combine to create a formidable talent stack.2017, Barbara Oakley, Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential, →ISBN. From the entry talent stack
  • Barechestedness among men displaying formidable tattoos is not, however, proscribed.2017, David McKie, “Saints through the Centuries, Summers of Sin: 94 Wadebridge–St Columb Major–Newquay”, in Riding Route 94: An…. From the entry barechestedness
  • Clinton’s main opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist, has proved to be more formidable than most people, including Mrs.2016 January 30, “Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination”, in The New York Times, retrieved 30 Jan 2016. From the entry linger
  • Below her formidable eyes her fangs are flanked by limb-like mouthparts: her palps, coloured a startling white like a quivering moustache.2015, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time, Pan Books (2016), page 20. From the entry palp
  • Though a good guy who'd give the shirt off his back to a friend, Brady Buchanon was a formidable enemy.2014, Linda Goodnight, Cowboy Under the Mistletoe, New York: Harlequin, →ISBN, page 78. From the entry the shirt off one's back
  • Of course Don Cherry, the other formidable Kingstonian cheerleader, remains a stubborn member of the Kingston hockey revisionists.2012, Paul Henderson, How Hockey Explains Canada: The Sport That Defines a Country, →ISBN. From the entry Kingstonian
  • A formidable woman of real power and prestige, she emerged from the Monica affair much more cuckold than cuckquean.2007 September 13, Judith Warner, “Horned and Scorned”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry cuckquean
  • Most handicappers, young and old, face formidable economic obstacles which limit their ability to satisfy their housing needs.1990, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs. Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development…. From the entry handicapper
  • Just as he was snorting and puffing like a grampus, I chanced to observe a quite formidable scar on his Sitzfleisch.1987, The Lexington Reader, page 530. From the entry Sitzfleisch
  • Ricci spent six years in Chaoching trying, through patient perseverance against formidable obstacles, to consolidate the newly won position.1962, George H. Dunne, Generation of Giants: The Story of the Jesuits in China in the last Decades of the Ming Dynasty, Notre Dame…. From the entry Chaoching
  • Any serpent six feet long looks formidable; and over that length, one takes on the aspect of a chimera.1946 October, Archibald Rutledge, “Along Nature's Trail”, in Boys' Life, volume 36, number 10, Boy Scouts of America, Inc., →ISSN, page 40. From the entry serpent
  • "A formidable incentive for a weak and desperate man to secure a fortune by hook or crook, Max," said Carlyle drily.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards…. From the entry by hook or crook
  • But formidable obstacles in all of these classifications have been surmounted before by airmen, and, of course, can be surmounted again.1914 February 28, Henry Woodhouse, “Girdling the Globe by Motor-Driven Aircraft”, in Collier's, volume 52, number 24, page 13. From the entry globe
  • In the political drama that Donald Trump has created in Washington, he could not have dreamed up a more formidable adversary than James Comey.2017 June 8, Maeve Reston, “Trump meets the ultimate adversary in James Comey”, in CNN, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2017. From the entry adversary
  • There was a pair of burly dwarves – a woman and a man – bearing the markings of the formidable Thane Guards.2014, Oisin McGann, Kings of the Realm: Cruel Salvation, Penguin UK, →ISBN. From the entry man
  • Maldor may been the least powerful of Zokar's apprentices, but he possesses a cunning intellect, and in a wizardless world his abilities were suddenly formidable.2011, Brandon Mull, A World Without Heroes, page 42. From the entry wizardless
  • The convoy made its way to Senlis where the jailer doubled as streetkeeper and the prison was left in the command of his formidable wife.2011, Morton, James, The First Detective, Overlook Press, page 45. From the entry streetkeeper
  • With great clarity, she steadily and captivatingly unwinds the complicated threads of her narrative, explicating formidable scholarship while keeping the twins at the fore.2009 September 6, Caroline Alexander, “Two of a Kind”, in New York Times. From the entry captivatingly
  • There is no doubt that complex notation can create a learning barrier and the notation involved in the Kalman filter can be quite formidable.2005, Randall L. Eubank, A Kalman Filter Primer, CRC Press, →ISBN. From the entry Kalman filter
  • There’s a wonderful sketch of a formidable biker called “Roundhouse,” who is “humongously fat and hasn’t had a haircut since third grade.”2004, Tom Burns, Jeffrey W. Hunter, editors, Contemporary Literary Criticism: Criticism of the Works of Today’s Novelists, Poets…. From the entry biker

Meaning of formidable

  1. adjective Causing fear, dread, awe, or discouragement as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive feature; commanding respect; causing wonder or astonishment.
  2. adjective Difficult to defeat or overcome.

Full definition of formidable

Questions about formidable in a sentence

How do you use formidable in a sentence?
Formidable is used as an adjective. For example: “The person who ran against her in the last election proved to be a formidable opponent.”
What is a short sentence with formidable?
“a formidable opponent”
What does formidable mean?
Formidable means causing fear, dread, awe, or discouragement as a result of size, strength, or some other impressive feature; commanding respect; causing wonder or astonishment.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: formidable (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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