Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use progressive in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Progressive means favouring or promoting progress; advanced. Example: “The progressives want to legalise gay marriage.”

Examples of progressive by meaning

adjectivePromoting or favoring progress towards improved conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods.

  • a progressive politician
  • progressive business leadership

adjectiveLiberal.

  • Conservative movements were far more progressive than the standard religious narrative of the decade alleges and the notoriously progressive ethos of the era was far more conservative than our collective memory has recognized.2016, Richard Lints, Progressive and Conservative Religious Ideologies, page i
  • Elissa Slotkin on Wednesday called for “action, not words” from Democrats, criticizing the approach of some in the progressive wing of the party.2025 March 19, Alison Main, “Michigan Democrat says she ‘can’t just be an activist’ and calls on party to act”, in CNN, archived from the...

adjectiveOf or relating to progressive education.

  • a progressive school

nounOne with liberal or progressive political beliefs.

  • The progressives want to legalise gay marriage.
  • Not long ago, few progressives imagined this day would come.2025 January 19, John Blake, “What MLK knew that today’s progressives keep forgetting”, in CNN, archived from the original on 21 Jan 2025

More sentences with progressive

  • His vigorous patronage of the conservatives got him in trouble with progressives.From the entry patronage
  • Progressive taxes attempt to reduce the tax burden of people with a lower ability to pay.From the entry ability to pay
  • Progressive dances typically start with the leader and the follower facing and backing line of dance, respectively.From the entry line of dance
  • I've been hyperfixating on obscure progressive rock bands all month.From the entry hyperfixate
  • The past perfect progressive is used for actions and situations which had continued up to a past moment or shortly before it.From the entry shortly
  • "There was a real progressive tradition in the Midwest uncoopted by Jim Crow and racial issues."2024 August 1, Jonathan Weisman, quoting Sam Rosenfeld, “Why Iowa Turned So Red When Nearby States Went Blue”, in The New York Times, New…. From the entry voter
  • "Both candidates held onto their bases: Johnson’s Milwaukee Avenue progressives and Vallas’ bungalow belt conservatives."2023 April 9, A.D. Quig, Alice Yin, Shanzeh Ahmad, Gregory Royal Pratt, “Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson calls Chicago ‘a tale of two cities.’…. From the entry Bungalow Belt
  • On top of all that, rightwing populists and leftwing progressives have made significant inroads into western politics.2022 March 8, Andrew Anthony, “Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama review – a defence of liberalism… from a former neocon”…. From the entry inroad
  • JANET: Martin Luther King would have been super-antiracist, but CRT progressives minimize King's accomplishments.2021, Stephen Waters, Individuals, Journalism, and Society Epilogue-Lessons learned. From the entry CRT
  • The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is skeptical: The Republican Party has gone authoritarian.2021 August 5, David Brooks, “The Biden Approach Is Working”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry big money
  • People have even been known to “wokefish”: to pretend they're progressive in order to get a date.2021, F.H. Buckley, Curiosity: And Its Twelve Rules for Life. From the entry wokefish
  • “People masquerade as holding progressive political views to ensnare potential partners,” Smith told Vice.2020 July 30, Ben Cost, “Wokefish’ dating trend: Shady men are pretending to be progressive on apps”, in New York Post, archived from the…. From the entry persona
  • Most of the action has been inside a radical progressive bubble.2018 August 12, Peter J Reilly, “Why Gender-Critical Radical Feminists Might Want A Church And Why IRS Approved”, in Forbes. From the entry gender critical
  • But the progressive movement, like the tea party, has no liking for bandwagon-jumpers.2018 June 28, Geoffrey Kabaservice, “Yes, there can be a tea party of the left, but here’s what’s different”, in The Washington Post…. From the entry bandwagon-jumper
  • Mild vermian volume loss and progressive chiasmatic atrophy (open arrow) are seen (B) on follow-up.2016, Thierry A. G. M. Huisman, Andrea Poretti, The Pediatric Cerebellum, page 380. From the entry interfoliate
  • Any progressive policy agenda was now possible because we were no longer America.Daniel Greenfield (10 November 2016), “The Obama Era is Over”, in Israel Rising, IsraelRising.com, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2016. From the entry Obamerica
  • Progressive hyperfluorescence with late leakage was considered a sign of lesion activity.2015 December 17, “MHC Class I Chain-Related Gene A Polymorphisms and Linkage Disequilibrium with HLA-B and HLA-C Alleles in Ocular…. From the entry hyperfluorescence
  • Metaphysics stagnates in scienceless (or uncritical) cultures; it is progressive in scientific ones.2012, Joseph Agassi, Science in Flux. From the entry doctrine
  • The stitches in each family grouping are explained in order of progressive difficulty.2012, Marion Nichols, Encyclopedia of Embroidery Stitches, Including Crewel, →ISBN, page viii. From the entry family grouping
  • Cytokines are developmental and homeostatic bioregulators of joint tissues, and are etiopathologically associated with progressive joint destruction.2012, J.-Y. Reginster, Osteoarthritis: Clinical and Experimental Aspects. From the entry etiopathologically
  • What is destroyed will be replaced by creative light, fulfillness and progressive development.2008, Maiya Gray-Cobb, Geof Gray-Cobb, Angels: The Guardians of Your Destiny. From the entry fulfillness
  • This bullying continuum illustrates the progressive escalation from harmless banter to bullying and criminal behaviours.2007, Evelyn M. Field, Bully Blocking, page 17. From the entry banter
  • It was awkward even for my parents, unembarrassable progressives though they were.2007, Elinor Lipman, My Latest Grievance, page 6. From the entry unembarrassable
  • Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder of skeletal malformations and progressive extraskeletal ossification.2006 April 23, Eileen M. Shore [et al.], “A Recurrent Mutation in the BMP Type I Receptor ACVR1 Causes Inherited and Sporadic…. From the entry fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva
  • At Mulberry Central he got off and asked two passing Hasidim for directions to the progressive synagogue.2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 400. From the entry Hasid
  • In this way, the salaryman was both a progressive social stratum and an intellectual class.2000, Harry Harootunian, Overcome by Modernity, page 205. From the entry salaryman
  • There is nothing new or progressive in the politically corrected vocabularies that now amuse the prejudiced.1998, Humphrey McQueen, Temper Democratic: How Exceptional is Australia?, Wakefield Press, →ISBN, page 190. From the entry politically correct
  • Heat stable proteins were equally good in progressive motility, but the control was better.1990, Muhammad Mahmood Hassan, The Effects of Heat Stable Proteins on Preservation of Bovine Spermatozoa, page 116. From the entry heat stable
  • Chenan County is one of Shensi's progressive counties in learning from Tachai.[1978 February 21 [1978 February 18], “County in Shensi Carries out Rectification”, in Daily Report: People's Republic of China, volume I…. From the entry Zhen'an
  • In these early stages of political modernization, the military officers play a highly modernizing and progressive role.1968, Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, →ISBN, page 203. From the entry modernizing
  • The disease starts as a progressive cerebellar ataxia in infancy and later progressive oculocutaneous telangiectasiae develop.1966, Acta Pædiatrica Scandinavica, volume 55, page 239, column 1. From the entry telangiectasiae
  • There is disconnexion, and there is progressive decline in handwriting skill.1954, Alan Keen, Roger Lubbock, The Annotator, Putnam, page 154. From the entry disconnexion
  • We have a corresponding increase in acid value, drying time misability with progressive darkening.1935, Paint and Varnish Production Manager - Volumes 12-13, page 37. From the entry misability

Meaning of progressive

  1. adjective Favouring or promoting progress; advanced.
  2. adjective Gradually advancing in extent; increasing.
  3. adjective Promoting or favoring progress towards improved conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods.

Full definition of progressive

Questions about progressive in a sentence

How do you use progressive in a sentence?
Progressive is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “The progressives want to legalise gay marriage.”
What is a short sentence with progressive?
“a progressive politician”
What does progressive mean?
Progressive means favouring or promoting progress; advanced.

Source and license

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