Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use sour in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Sour means tasting of acidity. Example: “Lemons have a sour taste.”

Examples of sour by meaning

adjectiveTasting of acidity.

  • Lemons have a sour taste.
  • Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.2018 May 16, Adam Rogers, “The Fundamental Nihilism of Yanny vs. Laurel”, in Wired

adjectiveMade rancid by fermentation, etc.

  • Don't drink that milk; it's turned sour.

adjectiveTasting or smelling rancid.

  • His sour breath makes it unpleasing to talk to him.

adjectiveHostile or unfriendly.

  • He gave me a sour look.

adjectiveExcessively acidic and thus infertile. (of soil).

  • a sour marsh

adjectiveContaining excess sulfur. (of petroleum).

  • sour gas smells like rotten eggs

adjectiveOff-pitch, out of tune.

  • Unlike what the name implies, there is nothing inherently wrong with a sour note: It is perfectly well-tuned note that would sound normal in another context (and which presumably would not sound sour to someone unfamiliar with tonal music).2010, Aniruddh D. Patel, Music, Language, and the Brain, page 201

nounA sweet/candy having a sharply sour taste.

  • “You know I like them candies, especially the lemon sours.”2022, Michael N. Riley, ARCH BOOK I, page 78

More sentences with sour

  • Empty stomachs lead to acidity and leave a sour taste in the mouth.From the entry acidity
  • We're going to harvest day and night, because the weather is about to turn sour.From the entry harvest
  • I think his comments about that new car are just sour grapes because he can't afford it.From the entry sour grapes
  • The flight went sour after I spilled coffee all over myself.From the entry go sour
  • On being opened, the wine was found to be undrinkably sour.From the entry undrinkably
  • He soured on the trumpet, so she never heard it again.From the entry sour on
  • The oysters were sour, and excessively alcoholic.From the entry alcoholic
  • Her favorite Chanukah memories were of eating latkes and sour cream while her mother gossiped with the aunts and cousins.From the entry latke
  • I really need you to look out for me on this deal since the last two have gone sour.From the entry look out for someone
  • This here orange is too sour.From the entry here
  • She can't act for sour apples.From the entry for sour apples
  • Her smiling equipoise is a statement of self-confident power against his sour fuming.2024 September 12, David Brooks, “How a Cultural Shift Favors Harris”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company…. From the entry equipoise
  • The only sour note for Larne was the dismissal of Chris Gallagher, with 30 minutes left.2024 August 29, Alex Mills, “Larne headed for Conference League group stages as Andy Ryan hat-trick secures historic Play-Off joy”, in…. From the entry in hysterics
  • Studen is served with horseradish, mustard, pounded garlic, and sour cream.2022, Nina Myachikova, Mark Shamtsyan, “[Culinary traditions, food, and eating habits in Russia] Features of cooking of selected Russian…. From the entry studen
  • Nevertheless, many humans intuitively perceive colostrum as “sour milk,” which should not be given to infants.2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 16, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN. From the entry colostrum
  • The most popular dishes included special fried rice, chicken with almonds, and sweet and sour pork.2015 January 29, Alice Pung, Growing Up Asian in Australia, ReadHowYouWant.com, →ISBN. From the entry shandy
  • A small New York company is behind the indulgent smetannik, or sour cream cake.2015 August 19–26, Alice Levitt, “Crumbs”, in Pamela Polston, Paula Routly, editors, Seven Days, volume 20, number 50, Burlington, Vt.: Da…. From the entry smetannik
  • Humans utilize a kind of sweet and sour blend of love potion called charm.2014, Lloyd E. McIlveen, Improving on Love and Relationships. From the entry sweet-and-sour
  • The bakery offers fresh khachapuri, a Georgian cheese bread, and smetannik, a Russian sour cream cake.2014 April 18, Taryn Luna, “Small, independent grocers bracing for big competition”, in The Boston Globe, volume 285, number 108, Boston…. From the entry smetannik
  • When cooked, it tastes like bistek Tagalog—a little sour, salty from soy sauce—but without the onions.2014 November, Claude Tayag, Mary Ann Quioc, “Pork tapa”, in Linamnam: Eating One’s Way Around the Philippines, 2nd edition, Mandaluyong…. From the entry bistek tagalog
  • If by accident the milk has become sour, the fact soon manifests itself sufficiently to the taste.2013, Augustus Voelcker, Composition of Cheese and Practical Mistakes in Cheese-Making, →ISBN. From the entry acidometer
  • They’ve all brought bright woven blankets, blinchiky with sour cream, and vodka.2013, Jacob Shores-Arguello, “[Ukraine] On the Holiday for the Dead”, in In the Absence of Clocks (The Crab Orchard Series in Poetry)…. From the entry blinchik
  • He had sweet and sour with two kinds of noodles and I had bean hot-pot.2012 May 3, Doris Paterson, Willy & Me, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 70. From the entry sweet-and-sour
  • One sour note was the withdrawal of Rosicky, who suffered concussion after a heavy collision.2011 March 2, Chris Whyatt, “Arsenal 5 - 0 Leyton Orient”, in BBC. From the entry sour note
  • Has over forty different designer pizza toppings, such as smoked salmon, sour cream and caviar.2010, Tony Pinchuck, Barbara McCrea, Donald Reid, Ross Velton, The Rough Guide to South Africa, 6th edition, London: Rough Guides, →ISBN…. From the entry friendly
  • But it is the beer's mouthpuckeringly sour body that helps separate it from tamer summer seasonals.2010, Andy Crouch, Great American Craft Beer: A Guide to the Nation's Finest Beers and Breweries, Philadelphia, P.A.: Running Press…. From the entry mouth-puckeringly
  • Has a nice graham-crackery aroma, with a pulpy, woody feel and sour plum skin and rubber flavors.2005 October 1, Daryna Tobey, quotee, Wine Enthusiast Magazine Essential Buying Guide 2007, Philadelphia, Pa.: Running Press, published…. From the entry graham-crackery
  • Top each tostado with the tomato mixture, sour cream, and cilantro sprigs.2003, Weight Watchers International, Simply Delicious: 245 No-Fuss Recipes--All 8 POINTS Or Less, →ISBN, page 100. From the entry tostado
  • I can't unplay that note, even if it was a sour one.2003, Mary Sheppard, The Winds of Change, page 82. From the entry unplay
  • The dancers had started on a third pass when Lady Lucianne piped a sour note.2001, Teresa DesJardien, The Marriage Masquerade, page 49. From the entry misfinger
  • The amount of time wasted on both sides turns everybody sour.1998 August 17, Christine Gorman, “E-Mail Your Doctor”, in Time. From the entry telephone tag

Meaning of sour

  1. adjective Tasting of acidity.
  2. adjective Made rancid by fermentation, etc.
  3. adjective Tasting or smelling rancid.

Full definition of sour

Questions about sour in a sentence

How do you use sour in a sentence?
Sour is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “Lemons have a sour taste.”
What is a short sentence with sour?
“a sour marsh”
What does sour mean?
Sour means tasting of acidity.

Source and license

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