Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use privately in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb

Privately means in a private manner. Example: “A gifted pupil might sometimes need to be coached privately about avoiding presenting themself as a handwaver.”

Examples of privately by meaning

adverbIn a private manner.

  • This leads to the old Harbour Inn and the impeccably restored railway station, now part of the privately run steam-operated Severn Valley Railway.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 389, about Upper Arley
  • Alonso and Ferrari may well privately regret the decision to delay their second pit stop until two laps after Maldonado made his on the 24th of 66 laps.2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original...

More sentences with privately

  • A gifted pupil might sometimes need to be coached privately about avoiding presenting themself as a handwaver.From the entry handwaver
  • Owing to the prudery of Victorian times, people hardly dared talk about bleeding at all — even privately, let alone publicly.From the entry bleeding
  • To be honest, he has a bit of a body odor problem, but we haven't yet had an opportunity to tell him gently and privately.From the entry to be honest
  • And privately the president says, “Do the Iraqis have the juice to carry this off?”2019, Timothy Andrews Sayle, Jeffrey A. Engel, Hal Brands, William Inboden, editors, The Last Card: Inside George W. Bush's Decision to…. From the entry juice
  • But if you talk to people here privately, they suggest there are three possible scenarios.2011 February 8, ‘Feeling understandably twitchy’, The Economist. From the entry peaceable
  • There are countless examples of gold-plated or excessive infrastructure projects — whether publicly or privately financed.2008, Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, “Economic and Policy Instruments to Promote Adapation”, in Shardul Agrawala…. From the entry gold-plated
  • But White House officials have privately grown frustrated with her performance, as Republican midterm strategists raise alarms about the political damage.2026 February 13, Nick Miroff, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Michael Scherer, “Kristi Noem’s Audience of One”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The…. From the entry midterm
  • The hamsters conferred privately before one of them answered curtly: “We want a raise, Madame,” then he coughed.2026 [1979], Copi, “The Surprise Party”, in Kit Schluter, transl., City of Rats, New Directions Publishing, →ISBN, page 16. From the entry usufruct
  • “They posted it privately years ago, and they had the video an hour long going over every date possible,” they explained.2021 February 25, Morgan Greenwald, “TikTokers left disturbed by YouTube channel's eerily accurate death predictions: 'I would be…. From the entry unprivate
  • He publicly praised Porter and privately urged him to stay.2018, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Philip Rucker, “When you lose that power’: How John Kelly faded as White House disciplinarian”, in…. From the entry whipsaw
  • A moderate self-view may be entertained privately or expressed publicly.2011, Constantine Sedikides, Steven J. Spencer, The Self, page 164. From the entry self-view
  • I wrote to EmGee privately and xe said yes, that was one of the things xe was talking about.2000 December 11, Mary Ellen Curtin, “Silencing and ad hominem attacks”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (Usenet), message-ID…. From the entry xe
  • Freebooting of broadcast satellite signals may exist privately, but we have no evidence of illegal signal capture being commercialized any longer.1994, United States. Congress. Senate, Country reports on economic policy and trade practices. From the entry freebooting
  • It is practiced by members of the Circles Effect Research Unit, a privately funded group headed by Wiltshire-based physicist Terence Meaden.1991 September 23, Leon Jaroff, “It happens in the best circles”, in Time, archived from the original on 11 Nov 2016. From the entry cereology
  • Donnelly, the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island had erect a large Christmas display each holiday season in a privately owned park.1990, Shlomo Slonim, editor, The Constitutional Bases of Political and Social Change in the United States, Praeger, page 77. From the entry Santa Clause
  • Many sincere white people in the South privately oppose segregation and discrimination, but they are apprehensive lest they be publicly condemned.1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “Transformed Nonconformist”, in Strength to Love, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 13. From the entry discrimination
  • Neither worldling nor churchling privately possesses his love.1956, David Wesley Soper, Epistle to the skeptics. From the entry churchling
  • We confined it to carside evacuation from the larger buildings, and we asked privately owned buildings to participate.1956, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations, Civil Defense for National Survival: Hearings, page 519. From the entry carside
  • On privately owned motor busses an average of 33 per cent of the passenger ticket revenues must be paid.1931 May 19, “Motor Traffic Ceases in Warsaw as Protest […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN…. From the entry motor bus
  • This has now been privately printed and deposited in several of the leading libraries as a matter of record.1920, “Memoirs of Capt. Andrew Talcott”, in Engineering News-record, volume 85, page 805. From the entry matter of record
  • A number of agricultural colleges have added courses in tractioneering, and there are several privately conducted tractor schools.1916, United States. Department of Agriculture, Department Bulletin (issues 151-175, page 40). From the entry tractioneering
  • I privately wished that the bears would win sometimes on these occasions; at least they wouldn't go vapouring about it afterwards.1904, “Saki”, ‘Reginald's Christmas Revel’, Reginald. From the entry vapor
  • Could he ask the cashier privately for an advance?1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Counterparts”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 109. From the entry advance
  • A wave of consolidation has swept out the privately held operators that were quick to add new barrels when prices screened higher.2026 March 4, Benoît Morenne, “Why American Frackers Aren’t Rushing to Pump More Oil: U.S. shale giants won’t budge from their plans…. From the entry shale
  • The BC Supreme Court’s recent ruling compels the province to begin negotiations with the Quwʼutsun nation over privately held lands in their territory.2025 September 16, Julia Weder, Mary Stuart, James Rowe, “Haida Gwaii shows how to resist Conservative fearmongering on Indigenous…. From the entry Quwʼutsun
  • In the meantime, SWR staff have warned privately that an acute shortage of rolling stock is looming, because the new trains are not ready.2021 November 3, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Rolling stock concerns as '701s' "not fit for purpose"”, in RAIL, number 943, page 21. From the entry loom
  • When they break for dinner, late in the afternoon, the conductor, whose name is Luján, privately remarks to him, "Their eyes need fixing."2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2025, page 136. From the entry coast
  • The privately run school will be closed and a new public school will open at the same location, the Qingyang city government said.2011 November 21, “China: Kindergarten Owner Arrested in Bus Crash”, in The New York Times, sourced from Associated Press, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry Qingyang
  • Privately held businesses may hold assets or have charges to their financial statements which are not core to their main business activity.2009, Greg Hayes, A Practical Guide to Business Valuations for SMEs, page 68. From the entry core
  • The mixed-economy university in Europe seems better suited to stimulating entrepreneurialism that is linked to creativity and innovation than purely privately financed institutions.2008, Michael Shattock, editor, Entrepreneurialism In Universities And The Knowledge Economy, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 204. From the entry entrepreneurialism
  • He had a beautiful, faithless wife and a stadiumful of friends who drank his drinks and indulged his whims and privately considered him a fool.2008, Edward Gorman, Rough Cut and New, Improved Murder, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 37. From the entry stadiumful
  • Haq told the privately owned Geo television network on Tuesday night that it had become a sanctuary for militants from other parts of the country.2007 July 12, Somini Sengupta, “After Mosque Battle, Musharraf’s Troubles Persist”, in New York Times. From the entry antivice
  • If you are impolite to us, we will ignore you and diss you and publicly or privately floccinaucinihilipilificate your work just because you were rude.2004 June 15, Peter Fairbrother, “Re: Factoring paper is wrong”, in sci.crypt (Usenet). From the entry floccinaucinihilipilificate
  • People find it privately rational to invest resources in efforts to secure differentially favored access to the economic power inherent in bureaucratic discretion.2001, James M[cGill] Buchanan, Choice, Contract, and Constitutions (The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan; 16), Indianapolis, Ind.…. From the entry rent-seeking
  • It is the privilege of every pilot to think of himself, privately at least, as a hot rock of the first magnitude.1949, Flying Magazine, volume 45, number 4, page 28. From the entry hot rock
  • Meanwhile, Scotland shows us a successful alternative to restrictive English laws, with a national “right to roam” – despite nearly 60% of its land being privately owned.2023 January 17, Sophie Pavelle, “The Dartmoor wild camping ban further limits our right to roam. It must be fought”, in The Guardian. From the entry right to roam
  • “My husband and I had joined the mile high club before, so to be able to do it privately was great,” she said in a phone interview.2022 February 5, Shane O’Neill, “The Mile High Club, Complete With Membership Cards”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry Mile High Club
  • Thing that’s been irking me lately: when people who are vicious tradlarpers in public admit to you privately they have a weird fetish or favorite Onlyfans girls.2021 August 27, @Chat_Mort, Twitter, archived from the original on 02 Oct 2022. From the entry tradlarper

Meaning of privately

  1. adverb In a private manner.

Full definition of privately

Questions about privately in a sentence

How do you use privately in a sentence?
Privately is used as an adverb. For example: “A gifted pupil might sometimes need to be coached privately about avoiding presenting themself as a handwaver.”
What is a short sentence with privately?
“Neither worldling nor churchling privately possesses his love.”
What does privately mean?
Privately means in a private manner.

Source and license

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