How to Use defensible in a Sentence

defensible

adjective
  • The city has a defensible location.
  • Both candidates hold defensible positions on the issue.
  • Slavery is not morally defensible.
  • Under those circumstances, her actions were completely defensible.
  • That would be a defensible deal for Utah, even as the point guard ages.
    Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 Oct. 2020
  • Of the two, Jones’s centrist tone is the more defensible.
    Jeet Heer, New Republic, 19 Dec. 2017
  • But this doesn’t make the Biden bailout any more defensible.
    James Freeman, WSJ, 25 Aug. 2022
  • The goal is to lessen the risk by maintaining a defensible space that does not add fuel to a fire.
    oregonlive, 25 May 2021
  • The selection process was flawed, to say the least, but the outcome is defensible.
    Mark Lamster, Dallas News, 9 July 2020
  • While the above may be defensible on some level, this one is not.
    Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2018
  • But that defensible space was no match for what came next.
    Simret Aklilu, CNN, 28 Aug. 2020
  • So at that point at least, tossing the chips at Homer seemed defensible.
    Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 30 June 2017
  • But the Helms hadn't set out to create defensible space.
    Anne Ryman, azcentral, 24 June 2018
  • That’s anger on top of anger over cases that are not very defensible.
    Emily Opilo, Baltimore Sun, 9 Feb. 2023
  • But there are plenty of defensible reasons to stay the course, too.
    Mike Finger, San Antonio Express-News, 30 June 2018
  • Some of what Yglesias seems to be saying in this tweet is defensible.
    Joseph Thorndike, Forbes, 18 July 2022
  • Very few in that group find the substance of the impeachment inquiry to be defensible.
    Dp Opinion, The Denver Post, 3 Nov. 2019
  • In the world of war into which it has been thrust, Israel has no other defensible choice.
    James F. Jeffrey, Foreign Affairs, 28 Oct. 2023
  • And the scripted cleanup pertained only to the least defensible of his comments.
    Zeke Miller, The Seattle Times, 17 July 2018
  • Give in to the defensible hype with the 11 best early Black Friday fashion deals from Dôen's sale below.
    Halie Lesavage, Harper's BAZAAR, 21 Nov. 2022
  • Most homes that burn down in a wildfire are torched this way; that’s why defensible space is not enough, and a house must be hardened against embers, too.
    Ingfei Chen, The New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2022
  • Mare’s actions as defensible, the series nods at the countless ways in which cops can abuse their powers.
    Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 21 Apr. 2021
  • That’s a little bit more defensible than not being able to fit in around LeBron James.
    SI.com, 9 Feb. 2018
  • In the wake of their responses to the Israel–Hamas War, however, that idea is no longer defensible.
    Jonas Du, National Review, 2 Dec. 2023
  • There are still defensible reasons for why the Pistons parted with so much to bring Blake to Detroit.
    Rohan Nadkarni, SI.com, 16 Mar. 2018
  • The question is whether or not this is legally defensible.
    Michael Calore Lauren Goode, WIRED, 28 Mar. 2024
  • My goal and the team’s goal is to do an accurate job, make sure the calls are defensible, and defend them as needed if there are questions about it.
    Stephen Battaglio, chicagotribune.com, 19 Oct. 2020
  • The tragedy of Irene and Clare rests not in the question of whether the act of passing is morally defensible but in the fact that neither can fully provide an answer.
    Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 9 Nov. 2021
  • The move was defensible, with a string of right-handed batters due up during Wrobleski’s third time through the order.
    Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 28 July 2024
  • Usually, these statements have been phrased in ways that could be plausibly defensible if Walz had been pressed on them.
    The Editors, National Review, 8 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'defensible.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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