Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use politeness in a sentence

21 example sentences · noun

Politeness means the quality of being polite. Example: “Do you have it in you to show any respect, politeness, patience, or, God forbid, an ounce of forbearance?”

Examples of politeness by meaning

nounThe quality of being polite.

  • At school, where politeness is not one of the compulsory subjects, I was "Pup", "Puggy", "Ki-ki", "Balcombe Beauty", "Snarleywow", and other shafts of endearment.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

nounA polite act.

  • These politenesses left Miss Marley floundering for initiative, holding Jasper and being solemnly inspected by Podson, who clearly depended on her the convention of an afternoon call.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 145

More sentences with politeness

  • Do you have it in you to show any respect, politeness, patience, or, God forbid, an ounce of forbearance?From the entry have it in one
  • The phenomenon of self-denigration is a typical example of politeness in Chinese culture.2022 November, Ling Zhou, “Self-denigration in Mandarin Chinese: An alternative account from sincerity”, in Language & Communication…. From the entry self-denigration
  • Do: Be sure to say please and thank you; Canadians are known for their politeness.2018, Lonely Planet's Global Coffee Tour, Lonely Planet, →ISBN. From the entry double double
  • A major Romney fund-raiser brushed off the standing ovation as simple politeness.2013 June 8, Trip Gabriel, “Christie, at G.O.P. Event, Finds Many Unburned Bridges”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry bro code
  • She whisked his hand away with freezing politeness and said simply, "He's gone now."1986, Craig G. Harris, “Cut Off from Among Their People”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 64. From the entry freezing
  • The politenesses of Conrad to James and of James to Conrad were of the most impressive kind.1931, Ford Madox Ford, Return to Yesterday: Reminiscences of James, Conrad, & Crane. From the entry ore rotundo
  • He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.1921, Holman Day, All Wool Morrison, Kessinger Publishing. From the entry altiloquent
  • Canada had an international reputation for politeness.2020, Patrick Ness, Burn, Walker Books Ltd (2021), page 50. From the entry RCMP
  • Mr Malik had grown to quite like pea-cake, though he only ate one sugar biscuit and that was out of politeness.2008, Nicholas Drayson, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, page 91. From the entry peacake
  • Smith's misplaced politeness here is truly retrograde.1991 December 1, Rudy Grillo, “Who's The Top?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 20, page 8. From the entry retrograde
  • His politeness to Blanquette would have put to the blush any young man at the Bon Marché or the Louvre.1906, William John Locke, chapter 7, in The Belovéd Vagabond, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, page 91. From the entry put to the blush
  • He will not abide intellectually lazy thinking or any form of acquiescence to political correctness and its facile rituals of politeness and forced conviviality.2009, Gary Clark, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 8. From the entry conviviality
  • Politeness is an important traditional aspect of Japanese life and this is reflected strongly in the language used when speaking to those in the out-group.2008, Helen Gilhooly, chapter 1, in Complete Japanese, →ISBN, page 12. From the entry ingroup
  • Many of the seemingly bizarre courtship practices of English males—the cautiousness, reserve and apparent stand-offishness that foreign females complain about—are characteristic features of ‘negative politeness’.2004, Kate Fox, “Rules of Sex”, in Watching the English, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 336. From the entry standoffishness
  • It is clear, however, that while politeness manifests itself on both the communicative and non-communicative levels, phaticity is found only on the former level.2003, Gil Richard Musolf, Structure and Agency in Everyday Life, page 144. From the entry phaticity
  • And something angered Tamara in the way the Prince assisted in all this, out-commonplacing her friend in commonplaces with the suavest politeness.1910, Elinor Glyn, chapter 4, in His Hour. From the entry commonplace
  • When the visiting school wins (and sometimes it does, you know), then in pure politeness he says: “Hooroo! hooroo!” but he only goes half-way round.1905, Report of the National Congress of Mothers: Held in the city of Washington, D. C., March 10-17, 1905, page 214. From the entry hooroo
  • Mere acquaintances are thought to be close friends; politeness and the exchange of pleasantries are taken as expressions of deep attachment and the promise of future support.1982 October 1, Fred H. Goldner, “Pronoia”, in Social Problems, volume 30, number 1, Berkeley, Calif.: Published by the University of…. From the entry pronoia
  • The White House attendants are Chesterfields of politeness, and the visitor must be aggressive and persistent indeed who is not kept within proper limits without having his sensibilities wounded.1901, Mrs. John A. Logan, Thirty Years in Washington, page 141. From the entry chesterfield

Meaning of politeness

  1. noun The quality of being polite.
  2. noun A polite act.

Full definition of politeness

Questions about politeness in a sentence

How do you use politeness in a sentence?
Politeness is used as a noun. For example: “Do you have it in you to show any respect, politeness, patience, or, God forbid, an ounce of forbearance?”
What is a short sentence with politeness?
“Canada had an international reputation for politeness.”
What does politeness mean?
Politeness means the quality of being polite.

Source and license

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