Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use reticent in a sentence

17 example sentences · adjective

Reticent means unwilling to communicate; keeping one's thoughts and opinions to oneself; reserved or restrained. Example: “She's rather reticent on the subject of her finances.”

Examples of reticent by meaning

adjectiveUnwilling to communicate; keeping one's thoughts and opinions to oneself; reserved or restrained.

  • She's rather reticent on the subject of her finances.
  • The milkman had been released, I read, and the true criminal, about whose identity the police were reticent, was believed to have got away from London by one of the northern lines.1915 August–September, John Buchan, chapter 3, in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published October...
  • The inhabitants of that street impressed me peculiarly; At first I thought it was because they were all silent and reticent; but later decided it was because they were all very old.1922, H. P. Lovecraft, The Music of Erich Zann

adjectiveHesitant or not wanting to take some action; reluctant (usually followed by a verb in the infinitive).

  • He is reticent to travel so much.
  • While many uncomfortable components of the Holocaust have been analyzed in minute detail, the rape of Jewish women during this era persists as a subject that scholars and victims alike are reticent to explore.2010, Helene J. Sinnreich, “The Rape of Jewish Women during the Holocaust”, in Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust...
  • Whereas Jane was keen on discussing politics, Deborah was reticent to do so.2011, C. Dallett Hemphill, “chapter 3”, in Siblings: Brothers and Sisters in American History

More sentences with reticent

  • The Brabantians used to be known as rather reticent and stubborn, in contrast to their more open and louder Northern neighbors, i.e. the Dutch.From the entry Brabantian
  • The neuter voice is too reticent, too timid—too unjust—to be audible.2016, David Appelbaum, In His Voice: Maurice Blanchot's Affair with the Neuter, page 26. From the entry neuter voice
  • And yet, ironically, the campesinos were reticent to embrace preposterosities unless witnessing the fantasmic for themselves.2009, Lori R. Lopez, Dance of the Chupacabras (The Dance Trilogy; 1), →ISBN, page 33. From the entry preposterosity
  • It may also make potential investors reticent to invest given its potentially devastating dilutory effect.2003, Mark Fecenko, Anita M. Huntley, E-commerce: Corporate-commercial Aspects, Markham, Ont.: LexisNexis Canada, page 394. From the entry dilutory
  • An' every day Chinook Bill got more an' more worrit an' turrible reticent.1906, Robert Love Taylor, John Trotwood Moore, Thornwell Jacobs, editors, The Taylor-Trotwood Magazine, volumes 3-4, page 641. From the entry worrit
  • Furthermore, Ray, the musical leader, was frequently aloof, moody, or just reticent, hardly qualities of a solid road captain.2008, Thomas M. Kitts, Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else, →ISBN, page 57. From the entry road captain
  • 'No, he was kinder reticent about that part of it.'1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 9, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017. From the entry kinder
  • The military had been reticent over casualty figures (defined in militaryspeak as 'collateral damage') during the slaughters of new militarist adventures in Grenada and Panama.1997, Richard Keeble, Secret State, Silent Press: New Militarism, the Gulf and the Modern Image of Warfare, Indiana University Press…. From the entry militaryspeak
  • Pig, not normally reticent in these matters, now acted like a mystic after a vision; unable, maybe unwilling, to put in words this ineffable or supernal talent of Panky’s.1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.. From the entry supernal
  • This grandcousin of Christian Fenger's indeed was a brilliant man and went into great estate, but the rest of the Fenger family is curiously reticent about him.1941, Jens Christian Bay, The Fortune of Books. From the entry grandcousin
  • There is little deviation between the FemShep and BroShep scripts for the romance with Liara, which positions Commander Shepard as an experienced soldier (and lover) pursuing the naïve, reticent academic.2020, Amanda Phillips, Gamer Trouble: Feminist Confrontations in Digital Culture, page 148. From the entry BroShep

Meaning of reticent

  1. adjective Unwilling to communicate; keeping one's thoughts and opinions to oneself; reserved or restrained.
  2. adjective Hesitant or not wanting to take some action; reluctant (usually followed by a verb in the infinitive).

Full definition of reticent

Questions about reticent in a sentence

How do you use reticent in a sentence?
Reticent is used as an adjective. For example: “She's rather reticent on the subject of her finances.”
What is a short sentence with reticent?
“He is reticent to travel so much.”
What does reticent mean?
Reticent means unwilling to communicate; keeping one's thoughts and opinions to oneself; reserved or restrained.

Source and license

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