How to use imperative in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Imperative means essential; crucial; extremely important. Example: “That you come here right now is imperative.”

Examples of imperative by meaning

adjectiveEssential; crucial; extremely important.

That you come here right now is imperative.
Meantime, alterations at King William Street had become imperative, and by December 22, 1895, the station had been remodelled, as at Stockwell, to provide an island platform with lines each side, and a scissors crossing.1941 May, “Jubilee of the City Tube”, in Railway Magazine, page 224
It's imperative that he reads and understands it.2019, Con Man Games, SmashGames, quoting Felix, Kindergarten 2, SmashGames

nounThe grammatical mood expressing an order (see jussive). In English, the imperative form of a verb is the same as that...

The verbs in sentences like "Do it!" and "Say what you like!" are in the imperative.

nounAn essential action, a must: something which is imperative.

Visiting Berlin is an imperative.
The new imperative for investment is the Government's objective to secure carbon-neutral transport emissions by 2040.2020 December 2, Industry Insider, “The costs of cutting carbon”, in Rail, page 76

More sentences with imperative

The second-person imperative is a verbal inflection found in many Indo-European languages.From the entry inflection
In the imperative mood, the word “you” is usually understood.From the entry understand
It is imperative that you finish your task posthaste.From the entry posthaste
Additionally, the bio-genealogical imperative is realized by fertility science in other familiar ways.2019, Frances J. Latchford, Steeped in Blood: Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family. From the entry dibling
It's imperative that conservatives continue to resist the Clintonization of the GOP.2016 November 10, David French, “What Comes Next for Never Trump”, in National Review, archived from the original on 10 Apr 2019. From the entry Clintonization
The word you usually does not appear before the imperative verb.2011 March 16, Geraldine Woods, English Grammar For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN. From the entry you understood
The reason is that it is difficult to find imperatives which take a subjectlike oblique noun phrase.2011, Toril Swan, Endre Mørck, Olaf Jansen, Language Change and Language Structure, page 171. From the entry subjectlike
The volitive moods (also called volitives, volitional forms, modals, or projectives) are the imperative, jussive, and cohortative.2007, Ronald James Williams, John C. Beckman, Williams' Hebrew Syntax, →ISBN, page 78. From the entry projective
There are no laws about queueing, but there is a powerful moral imperative not to cheat.2004 September 18, Adam Nicolson, “Not even the full force of the law is enough to make something legitimate”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved…. From the entry moral imperative
"First, adjectives are distinguished from verbs in that they do not have imperative or propositive forms."2000, Iksop Lee, Samuel Robert Ramsey, The Korean Language, page 101. From the entry propositive
"Imperative and propositive (ie, 'let us V type) sentences were excluded.1997, Young-joo Kim, “The Acquisition of Korean,”, in The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, page 417. From the entry propositive
This moral imperative requires sons to obey their parents and take care of them during old age.1996, Robert Strom et al., "Intergenerational Relationships in Taiwanese Families" in Changing Family Roles and Feminism, Man Singh Das…. From the entry moral imperative
In sections (5.2.7-10.) three special prohibitive moods were identified and described: negative imperative, negative exhortative and monitory.1994, Hein van der Voort, A grammar of Kwaza, Mouton de Gruyzer, page 528. From the entry exhortative
It continues to pin bankers in an overregulated and overrestrained structure and adds considerable microregulatory imperatives.1992, Proceedings of a Conference on Bank Structure and Competition. From the entry overrestrained
The procedure division contains the imperative, arithmetic, conditional, and other statements that create and manipulate the data.1971, Allen Kent, Harold Lancour, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. From the entry procedure division
The present connegative has a unique stem form homophonous with that of the imperative (ei tule ‘doesn't come,’ tule!, ‘come!’).2023, Daniel Abondolo, Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi, editors, The Uralic Languages, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 380. From the entry connegative
The temporal adverb gero 'afterward' (section 20.1.2.1) can occur as a monitive particle in imperative, jussive, and optative sentences.2022, Rudolf P.G. De Rijk, Standard Basque: A Progressive Grammar, page 581. From the entry monitive
It's imperative we get 2 closed door matches under our belt in Qatar so we can derust in November.2022 September 23, u/jamesey10, “Post Match Thread: MNT”, in Reddit, r/ussoccer, archived from the original on 23 Dec 2023. From the entry derust
Overcoming a strong preference for cash in the MEASA region will be imperative to move towards a cashless economy.2017 November 27, Adam Green, “The Next Frontier: The future of finance in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia”, in Economist Impact…. From the entry MEASA
Collections of natural history objects were brought together, and as they grew in magnitude some system of classification became imperative.2015 [1938], “Forty years of evolution theory”, in Joseph Needham, Walter Pagel, editors, Background to Modern Science, reprint edition…. From the entry ovinely
They can’t seem to decide if the moral imperative is more crucial than the pleasure principle, or the other way around.2008 March 16, Claire Dederer, "Brownstoners" (book review of The Future of Love by Shirley Abbott), New York Times (retrieved 4 July 2015). From the entry pleasure principle
The jussive and cohortative usually convey more indirect, or more subtle, expressions of volition than the imperative does.2006, Robert Ray Ellis, Learning to Read Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar, page 174. From the entry jussive
For example, in many situations the imperative of tension and a delineator of conflict may require that the hero be captured.2005, M. C. Lyons, The Arabian Epic: Volume 1, Introduction, page 75. From the entry delineator
The earth has given us three imperatives.2004, Paul R. Fleischman, “Introduction to the Second Edition”, in Cultivating Inner Peace: Exploring the Psychology, Wisdom, and Poetry…. From the entry decabillion
It is imperative that we make our way to space and do so as quickly and as safely as possible.2003, United States Senate, NASA: human space flight : hearing before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space of the Committee…. From the entry make one's way
Categorical imperatives do not typically contain an 'if.2001, Roger Scruton, Christopher Janaway, German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, page 75. From the entry categorical imperatives
Loudness, gregariousness, lad- and ladettishness are imperative.2001 April 1, “Watch with amazement”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 24 May 2024. From the entry ladettishness
A Halloweeny incoherence cautions reading assumptions from or into things, a creative nightmare loosens the reader from adult imperative.1999, Kenneth Lincoln, Sing with the Heart of a Bear: Fusions of Native and American Poetry, 1890-1999. From the entry Halloweeny
Once the necromantic imperative driving the central characters has been hacked out, the play turns into pointless, gory thriller.1993, Plays and players, numbers 466-477, page 15. From the entry witchless
It's imperative that these experiments be concluded with haste!1969 July, Roy Thomas, “Betrayal”, in Avengers, volume 1, number 66, Marvel Comics. From the entry adamantium
It must have been a maudlin letter because when she telephoned me she said it was imperative to see me immediately.1949, Henry Miller, Sexus (The Rosy Crucifixion), Grove Press, published 1965, →ISBN, page 105. From the entry maudlin
And then one of these initiators calls upon the initiatee with imperative command: “Do this,” and he doeth it.1915, Transactions of the Panama Pacific Dental Congress, volume 3, page 312. From the entry initiatee
Having the mechanical imperative of scenery improving your park rating helps motivate me, admittedly, but I still appreciate the power and potential in the toolset.2025 February, Rick Lane, “Review: Planet Coaster 2”, in PC Gamer (US), number 392, pages 68-69; published online 1 November 2024. From the entry mechanical
Understanding these foundational Java concepts is imperative for grasively grasping how design patterns work and how to implement them effectively in your Java applications.2024, Adam Jones, Essential Design Patterns in Java: Mastering Core Concepts and Practical Applications, Walzone Press. From the entry grasively

Meaning of imperative

adjective Essential; crucial; extremely important.
adjective Of, or relating to the imperative mood.
adjective Having semantics that incorporates mutable variables.

Full definition of imperative

Questions about imperative in a sentence

How do you use imperative in a sentence?: Imperative is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “That you come here right now is imperative.”
What is a short sentence with imperative?: “Visiting Berlin is an imperative.”
What does imperative mean?: Imperative means essential; crucial; extremely important.

Adapted from Wiktionary: imperative (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use imperative in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/imperative. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.