How to use incongruous in a sentence

19 example sentences · adjective

Incongruous means not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in. Example: “The yellow mustache appeared incongruous in the midst of such swarthiness.”

Examples of incongruous by meaning

adjectiveNot similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in.

The yellow mustache appeared incongruous in the midst of such swarthiness.1912, Jack London, chapter 1, in A Son Of The Sun
Scotland had scored a goal that seemed incongruous to the rest of their performance and, briefly, a fiercely partisan crowd sensed an improbable comeback.2014 November 18, Daniel Taylor, “England and Wayne Rooney see off Scotland in their own back yard”, in The Guardian

adjectiveOf two numbers, with respect to a third, such that their difference can not be divided by it without a remainder.

20 and 25 are incongruous with respect to 4.

More sentences with incongruous

Thus the rise of a seemingly incongruous pairing: steampunk rap, or chap-hop.2013, Julie Anne Taddeo, Cynthia J. Miller, Steaming into a Victorian Future, page 90. From the entry chap-hop
Louis lawyeress,” a term which today would seem as incongruous as a buggy-hitching weight in an Oldsmobile.[1960, The Georgia Review, volume 14, page 385. From the entry New Yorkeress
Kelce’s visible frustration during the moment might have been incongruous to his desired reputation as a golden retriever boyfriend.2024 February 12, Alaina Demopoulos, “Romcom ending: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s big night at the Super Bowl”, in Katharine Viner…. From the entry golden retriever boyfriend
The incongruous figure of Domi stood before them in a semicrouch, her nose twitching as the chamber powered up.2013, James Axler, Sorrow Space, →ISBN, page 14. From the entry semicrouch
In the case of the Cybermen the Vaderesque trappings, and the incongruous displays of emotion, were rapidly stripped away.2011, Piers D. Britton, TARDISbound: Navigating the Universes of Doctor Who, page 77. From the entry Vaderesque
Death is always incongruous, for it never throws itself toward life as toward its twin or twinnable other.2003, Reiner Schürmann, Reginald Lilly, Broken Hegemonies. From the entry twinnable
Completing this incongruous mix were Messrs. and Mrses.1993, David Margolick, chapter VIII, in Undue influence: The Epic Battle for the Johnson & Johnson Fortune, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow…. From the entry Mrses.
He seemed so incongruous a figure to be mixed up with the cut-throat maquis and sinister double-agents who populated the rest of the book.1983 December 3, Gary Ralph, “No Security for Those Who Never Had It”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 5. From the entry maquis
"No, it's just that it's incongruous.1951, Alice Tisdale Hobart, The Serpent-Wreathed Staff, Bobbs-Merrill, page 50. From the entry Shirley
And it's because something of the mundanely manual still adheres to darts that the players' heroic walk of honour from the green room to the oche is so incongruous.2017, Howard Jacobson, “The Wages of Indulgence is Darts”, in The Dog’s Last Walk (and Other Pieces), London; New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury…. From the entry gladiator
Completing the picture are some heavily draped power lines, a few meandering chickens and, looking completely incongruous, a dry docked, large and sleek, modern motor boat.2014, Dorothy E. Groszhans, Ecuadorothy, page 88. From the entry draped
She followed him to his fancy car, incongruous between the battered, old run-arounds on either side, and made another inarticulate noise as he beeped it open.2014, Cathy Williams, A Tempestuous Temptation, →ISBN. From the entry run-around
“Incongruous, but there you are,” Finlay added, giving Norma one of his crocodile smiles which had become even more crocodiley since he’d acquired an eye patch.1987, Emma Blair [pseudonym; Iain Blair], When Dreams Come True, Anstey, Leics.: Charnwood, F. A. Thorpe (Publishing) Ltd., published…. From the entry crocodiley
Within, among the bric-a-brac and furbelows, he found Miss Painter seated in a redundant purple armchair with the incongruous air of a horseman bestriding a heavy mount.1912, Edith Wharton, The Reef, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company. From the entry furbelow
There are no straight lines in nature, so the runwaylike precision of the canals is startling to the eye, wildly incongruous amid the natural curves of the bayous and lakes.2003, Mike Tidwell, Bayou farewell: the rich life and tragic death of Louisiana's Cajun coast. From the entry runwaylike
The yodel in it brought to mind incongruous images, full of holes as a Swiss cheese: among the alpenhorns and cuckoo clocks, cowbells clunked and donged like angeluses gone awry.1998, Ciaran Carson, Last Night's Fun: A Book About Irish Traditional Music, page 151. From the entry angelus

Meaning of incongruous

adjective Not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in.
adjective Of two numbers, with respect to a third, such that their difference can not be divided by it without a remainder.

Full definition of incongruous

Questions about incongruous in a sentence

How do you use incongruous in a sentence?: Incongruous is used as an adjective. For example: “The yellow mustache appeared incongruous in the midst of such swarthiness.”
What is a short sentence with incongruous?: “"No, it's just that it's incongruous.”
What does incongruous mean?: Incongruous means not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in.

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