Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use without in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb, preposition, conjunction

Without means outside, externally. Example: “Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without.”

Examples of without by meaning

adverbOutside, externally.

  • I knew that someone had entered the house cautiously from without.1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez, Norton, published 2005, page 1100
  • The feeling seemed to come not from without, but from within each body, as though every person had become a vibrating string.2016, Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu, Death's End, Tor, translation of 死神永生, →ISBN, page 236

adverbLacking something; failing.

  • Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without.
  • We've run out of bread; you'll have to do without until I can get to the bakeshop.
  • Whose can be used with a following noun or without.

adverbWithout a condom being worn.

  • And absolutely nothing without.”2012, Maxim Jakubowski, The Best British Crime Omnibus

prepositionNot having, containing, characteristic of, etc.

  • It was a mistake to leave my house without a coat.
  • I was without formal education but was well read and articulate.
  • From another point of view, it was a place without a soul.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

prepositionNot doing or not having done something.

  • He likes to eat everything without sharing.
  • He shot without warning anyone.
  • Without noticing it I grew old.

conjunctionUnless, except (introducing a clause).

  • ‘Why,’ he blurted, ‘because they say I've no right to come up like this—without we mean to marry—’1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

More sentences with without

  • The youth of today have never known what life is like without a cell phone.From the entry today
  • A free, open Internet without advertising or paywalls would be an infotopia.From the entry infotopia
  • I don't know how much longer we can last without reinforcements.From the entry last
  • I was surprised to learn that he was an immigrant, as he spoke without any accent.From the entry accent
  • I can't access most of the data on the computer without a password.From the entry access
  • We can't run this bar without her. Not and raise two kids.From the entry not
  • The man was arrested for touching a girl without her consent.From the entry touch
  • I wasn't sure how to phrase my condolences without sounding patronising.From the entry phrase
  • I dedicate this award to my parents, without whose help I wouldn't have made it this far.From the entry whose
  • Mathematical laws can be proved purely through mathematics, without scientific experimentation.From the entry law
  • You'll poop yourself if you have to walk all five miles home without stopping.From the entry poop
  • I took my leave of the gentleman without a backward glance.From the entry leave
  • The blisters on my foot made it a problem to walk without a cane.From the entry make
  • She’s very bright. She was able to solve the problem without my help.From the entry bright
  • After having to work overtime without being paid, I quit my job.From the entry quit
  • She couldn't tell the words on the chalkboard without her glasses.From the entry tell
  • You cannot train your back without regard to your tris and bis.From the entry bi
  • After the pylons collapsed, this town was without power for a few days.From the entry power
  • You'll just have to live with it! I can't live in a world without you.From the entry live
  • He waffled on for much of the earnings call without addressing the fall in share price.From the entry waffle
  • Without context, I can't tell if dish refers to a plate, or to the food served thereon.From the entry context
  • Unplugging a flash drive without dismounting it first can corrupt the data stored on the drive.From the entry corrupt
  • A screwdriver is a tool that no household should be without.From the entry tool
  • If I should be late, I should hope that you are prepared to go on without me.From the entry should
  • History has shown that, even without cheap labor, factories run perfectly well.From the entry factory
  • The human resources department has a shadow information technology group without headquarters knowledge.From the entry shadow
  • The journalists have been held in custody for three years without trial.From the entry trial

Meaning of without

  1. adverb Outside, externally.
  2. adverb Lacking something; failing.
  3. adverb Without a condom being worn.

Full definition of without

Questions about without in a sentence

How do you use without in a sentence?
Without is used as an adverb, preposition and conjunction. For example: “Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without.”
What is a short sentence with without?
“And absolutely nothing without.””
What does without mean?
Without means outside, externally.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: without (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 without in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/without. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.