Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use license in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

License means a legal document giving official permission to do something; a permit. Example: “I am licensed to practice law in this state.”

Examples of license by meaning

nounA legal document giving official permission to do something; a permit.

  • I would like to buy a fish licence please.1970, 0:1:15 from the start, in Monty Python's Flying Circus, season 2, episode 10, John Cleese (actor)

nounThe legal terms under which a person is allowed to use a product, especially software.

  • Thus, while the license will grant the user the right to use the software, a major concern is the scope of that use.1986, Thomas Smedinghoff, The Legal Guide to Developing, Protecting, and Marketing Software, page 166

nounFreedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable rules or practices (especially in behaviour or speech).

  • In some instances, the author took license to include events which never happened, or to purposely create events which may run in the face of popular conjecture if the author felt it would help the story along.2012, Chris Seepe, The Conspiracy to Assassinate Jesus Christ, page 5

nounExcessive freedom; lack of due restraint.

  • When liberty becomes license dictatorship is near.1936, Will Durant, Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, page 520

verbTo authorize officially.

  • I am licensed to practice law in this state.

verbTo give formal authorization to use.

  • It was decided to license Wikipedia under the GFDL.
  • The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68

verbTo acquire authorization to use, usually in exchange for compensation.

  • The filmmakers licensed several iconic 80's songs for the soundtrack.
  • As part of the strategic relationship, Microsoft has licensed the image segmentation, compression and viewing technology from ScanSoft.2000, International Journal of Micrographics & Optical Technology
  • They changed their campaign, licensed the song and used it for over six years in all of their advertising.2007, Steve Swayne, How Sondheim Found His Sound

verbTo permit (as grammatically correct).

  • No English adverbs have mandatory complements, and most don't even license optional ones.
  • Kayne argues that the crucial fact which licenses preposition stranding in English but not in French is the fact that in English verbs and prepositions assign Case similarly, and hence they govern similarly.2014, Hagit Borer, Parametric Syntax: Case Studies in Semitic and Romance Languages

More sentences with license

  • They bought a license for the Gulliver font and installed that font on several machines.From the entry font
  • Unfortunately, the license plate is out of focus in this image.From the entry focus
  • You need to have a portal to have a driver's license.From the entry portal
  • She had to give up her driver's license after the accident.From the entry up
  • In consideration of the performance of B's obligations hereunder, A hereby grants to B's personal license.From the entry consideration
  • There is a residential requirement for obtaining a marriage license here.From the entry residential
  • That boy is going to lose his license because he speeds like a demon.From the entry speeds
  • WinRAR shows a nag screen once its 40-day trial is over to encourage users to buy a license.From the entry nag screen
  • Driving downtown is restricted to bikes with odd and even license plate numbers alternately by day of the month.From the entry alternately
  • Do not drive without a valid license.From the entry valid
  • You have to "tip" the inspector if you want a license in this town. Too much backscratching around here!From the entry backscratching
  • My baby girl got her driver's license on Monday!From the entry baby girl
  • Don't drink and drive, or you can lose your license.From the entry drink and drive
  • You'll need a valid stateside motorcycle license.From the entry stateside
  • After LASIK, most patients see well enough to pass a driver's license exam without glasses or contact lenses.From the entry LASIK
  • This is a human-readable summary of the Creative Commons license.From the entry human-readable
  • The cops yanked my driver's license.From the entry yank
  • Your driver's license will be revoked.From the entry revoke
  • Joe received a license from McDonald's to develop twenty McDonald's restaurants in Dearborn, which included permission to grant a sublicense to the individual restaurant managers.From the entry sublicense
  • The old man's stubborn piggishness kept him from acknowledging that his wife was a better driver than he, even after his license was revoked.From the entry piggishness
  • Private pilots can only charge their passengers a prorated portion of fuel and maintenance costs; pilots need an additional license to transport feepaying passengers.From the entry feepaying
  • Driver's licenses have a photograph of the person on them, which is in full face if the person is above legal drinking age, or in profile if not.From the entry profile
  • People 17 and older can ride an e-bike using a driver’s license.2026 January 21, Ximena Conde, “How N.J. ended up having some of the most restrictive e-bike regulations in the country. And why advocates…. From the entry e-bike
  • An automated license plate reader is positioned between some trees at the entrance of Lowe's in Newington.2026 May 6, Jayne Chacko, “License plate readers now at Home Depot, Lowe's Home Improvement stores”, in NBC Connecticut, archived from the…. From the entry Newington
  • Licensing copyrighted work for sloppification could delight superfans and introduce material to new audiences.2025 October 16, Patrick Foulis, “Sloponomics: who wins and loses in the AI-content flood?”, in The Economist. From the entry sloppification
  • Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, the dangerman midfielder, was given greater license to get closer to the strikers.2024 June 16, David Hytner, “Jude Bellingham gives England winning start but Serbia make Southgate sweat”, in Guardian. From the entry dangerman
  • Weight-supported treadmill training unweighs the patient and licenses the utilization of a mechanized treadmill for walking.2023, Meena Gupta, Dinesh Bhatia, Prakash Kumar, Modern Intervention Tools for Rehabilitation, page 76. From the entry unweigh
  • And so when you go into a Kaiser, license readers, cars are associated with people," said Hill.2023 December 1, Da Lin, “Privacy advocates accuse Kaiser of not following state law on license plate readers”, in CBS News, archived from…. From the entry HIPPA

Meaning of license

  1. noun A legal document giving official permission to do something; a permit.
  2. noun The legal terms under which a person is allowed to use a product, especially software.
  3. noun Freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable rules or practices (especially in behaviour or speech).

Full definition of license

Questions about license in a sentence

How do you use license in a sentence?
License is used as a noun and verb. For example: “I am licensed to practice law in this state.”
What is a short sentence with license?
“The cops yanked my driver's license.”
What does license mean?
License means a legal document giving official permission to do something; a permit.

Source and license

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