Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use verbal in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Verbal means of or relating to words. Example: “The verbal system of Latin has two voices, active and passive.”

Examples of verbal by meaning

adjectiveExpressly spoken rather than written; oral.

  • a verbal contract
  • a verbal testimony
  • I am not speaking of the verbal use of the term 'Fascist'.1944, George Orwell, “What is Fascism?”, in Tribune

adjectiveCapable of speech.

  • How do these language problems affect the behaviour of verbal children?2005, Avril V. Brereton, Bruce J. Tonge, Pre-schoolers with autism, page 55

adjectiveWord for word.

  • a verbal translation

nounA spoken confession given to police.

  • They were convicted on the evidence of an agent provocateur named Richard Seary, backed up by police verbals from three police officers who gave evidence of six verbals in which the three accused were supposed to have admitted their guilt.1982, New South Wales. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, page 2496

nounTalk; speech, especially banter or scolding.

  • We'd give him a bit of verbal, out would come the bouncers, chucking their weight about, and it would all end in a right tear-up.2013, Lenny McLean, The Guv'nor

verbTo allege (usually falsely) that someone has made an oral admission.

  • The problem of 'verballing' is unlikely to disappear, whatever the legal status of the person detained.1982, John A. Andrews, Human Rights in Criminal Procedure: A Comparative Study, BRILL, →ISBN, page 128
  • Condren had always claimed that he was assaulted and verballed by police over the murder he had supposedly confessed to committing.2001, Chris Cunneen, Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police, Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 116
  • "Moreover, given the risk of verballing, it is by no means apparent that it is in the interests of justice that the prosecution have the benefit of admissions that are made on occasions when recordings are impracticable."2004, Jeremy Gans, Andrew Palmer, Australian Principles of Evidence, Routledge Cavendish, →ISBN, page 504

More sentences with verbal

  • The verbal system of Latin has two voices, active and passive.From the entry voice
  • The second-person imperative is a verbal inflection found in many Indo-European languages.From the entry inflection
  • While innovative in its verbal system, Sardinian is the most conservative Romance language in its vocabulary and phonology.From the entry conservative
  • His writing was peppered with verbal tricks and prestidigitation.From the entry prestidigitation
  • His verbal abuse was not relatable to polite ears.From the entry relatable
  • I acted by verbal authority, even though I couldn't be sure my superior would confirm I'd been authorized.From the entry verbal authority
  • White lies are verbal cases of pious fraud.From the entry pious fraud
  • It’s hard to think of two pueri aeterni who are more deserving of a verbal walloping.2025 June 7, Maureen Dowd, “Clash of the Bilious Billionaires”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry walloping
  • Cooke and Eve Best deliver a verbal showdown that’s twice as thrilling as the Kingsguard swordfight.2022 October 16, Jenna Scherer, “An enticing House Of The Dragon crowns Westeros' new ruler”, in AV Club. From the entry old saw
  • No verbal, just chinging, like everyone know that we are on tings.2019 August 12, “Deep In It”, Fizzler (lyrics). From the entry ching
  • There were one or two verbal exchanges, then I followed him into the car park.2018 May 25, Michael Nilsen, Beyond the Cave, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 82. From the entry orange
  • Homework assignments, such as sensate focus, were prescribed to enhance verbal and nonverbal communication.2015, Alan S. Gurman, Jay L. Lebow, Douglas K. Snyder, Clinical Handbook of Couple Therapy, Fifth Edition, Guilford Publications, →ISBN…. From the entry autoarousal
  • Hat-tippings and cap-doffings are of course of a different nature to more elaborate verbal greetings.2013, Peter Andersson, Streetlife in Late Victorian London: The Constable and the Crowd. From the entry tipping
  • I think that some in this groups have a severe case of verbal diarea.2012 January 29, Bellende Belhamel, “verbal diarea”, in alt.freemasonry (Usenet), retrieved 30 Apr 2022. From the entry diarea
  • Verbal blunderers like Dan Quayle have provided notorious examples of the simplest type of wittlessism.2012, Gary Saul Morson, “[Witticisms and Witlessisms] Stupidity Shines”, in The Long and Short of It: From Aphorism to Novel, Stanford…. From the entry Quaylism
  • These verbal blunders give ammunition to her political opponents and may help scuttle her as-yet-to-be-determined presidential bid.2011 March 30, TJ Mayotte, “Dictionary Battles: The Fight to Find Meaning in Doublespeak”, in Patch, Elkridge, MD, archived from the…. From the entry squirmish
  • Snark, a hybrid of “snide” and “remark," is a biting, casual verbal attack.2010 October 19, Michael Kackman, Marnie Binfield, Matthew Thomas Payne, Allison Perlman, Bryan Sebok, Flow TV: Television in the Age of…. From the entry snark
  • At times Benedick and Beatrice's verbal sparrings drip with an acidity that smarts.2010, Kenneth Tucker, Shakespeare and Jungian Typology: A Reading of the Plays, page 48. From the entry sparring
  • With his show-business background, Reagan was unusually deft at this type of verbal buck and wing.2010, Ralph Keyes, “Peacekeeper”, in Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms, page 122. From the entry buck-and-wing
  • The Muslims can boast of exceptional success in both number and verbal memory.2010 October 4, Mourad Wahba, Averroes and the Enlightenment, Prometheus Books, →ISBN, page 178. From the entry mneumonic
  • Extraverts, because of their verbal prowess, would be able to smooth-talk their way through almost any situation.2009, Otto Kroeger, Janet M. Thuesen, Hile Rutledge, Type Talk at Work, →ISBN. From the entry smooth-talk
  • Milk chocolate has been shown to boost verbal and visual memory, impulse control, and reaction time.2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135. From the entry pop
  • The only evidence of a verbal assault is the one Mr.2008, Victoria Laney, testimony to the Florida House Committee on Condominiums & Homeowners Association Governance…. From the entry verbal assault
  • Lawrence's psychonarrations of nonverbal states differ from Joyce's and Woolf's inner monologues of verbal thought.2005, Charles Michael Burack, D. H. Lawrence’s Language of Sacred Experience: The Transfiguration of the Reader, Palgrave Macmillan New…. From the entry psychonarration
  • But I could also see Nerdo was expecting a verbal body slam.2003, Ellen Schreiber, Vampire Kisses, page 49. From the entry body slam
  • The Pauline character is further enhanced by the numerous verbal similarities with passages in the genuine Paulines.1999, Alvar Ellegård, “Ephesians”, in Jesus – One Hundred Years Before Christ: A Study in Creative Mythology, London: Century, →ISBN, part…. From the entry Pauline
  • Verbal, written and behavioral language is made up of social norms.1999, Adolfo Critto, Choosing Models of Society and Social Norms: Improving Choices and Quality of Life, Lanham, Maryland: University…. From the entry inferible
  • In English there is no monolexical verb form to denote that the verbal subject is silent.1998, Dennis Kurzon, Discourse of Silence, page 2. From the entry monolexical
  • Bulliers frequently cause others to feel socially isolated and excluded through verbal, nonverbal, and physical harassment.1992, David H. Demo, Ritch C. Savin-Williams, “Self-Concept Stability and Change during Adolescence”, in Richard P. Lipka, Thomas M.…. From the entry bullier
  • To "bust on" someone is "to deflate their pretensions by means of aggressive verbal mockery." Mr.1989 April 9, “Campus Life: Rutgers Anthropologist Examines Sex Life On the Raritan”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Feb 2018. From the entry bust on

Meaning of verbal

  1. adjective Of or relating to words.
  2. adjective Concerned with the words, rather than the substance of a text.
  3. adjective Consisting of words only.

Full definition of verbal

Questions about verbal in a sentence

How do you use verbal in a sentence?
Verbal is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “The verbal system of Latin has two voices, active and passive.”
What is a short sentence with verbal?
“a verbal contract”
What does verbal mean?
Verbal means of or relating to words.

Source and license

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