How to Use define in a Sentence

define

verb
  • That fence defines the far edge of the property.
  • She believes that success should be defined in terms of health and happiness.
  • The government study seeks to define urban poverty.
  • Her book aims to define acceptable social behavior.
  • Below, check out some of the moments and scenes that defined opening day with top photos from the games.
    oregonlive, 31 Mar. 2023
  • The most important time of the year for Vicente is about to start — the season that defines him.
    Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 20 Sep. 2024
  • Experts who have been debating for years about how to regulate DSI don’t even agree on how to define the term.
    Benji Jones, Vox, 20 Sep. 2024
  • Of all the professions, perhaps none is more commonly bound by contracts that define where else an employee can go work than local television news.
    Lydia Depillis, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2023
  • Arkansas defined itself as the Natural State, made so by our many waterways.
    Curtis Varnell, arkansasonline.com, 22 Sep. 2024
  • At this point in the year, a quarter of the way through, there are already a handful of contenders for songs that will define the summer and carry us through all of 2023.
    Heran Mamo, Billboard, 29 Mar. 2023
  • For residents of Mogadishu, that can mean taking advantage of the beaches and warm sea that define the southeastern edge of the capital.
    Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Apr. 2023
  • The rest of my hair looked shiny, defined, and healthy.
    Jihan Forbes, Allure, 3 Sep. 2019
  • For me, that was a big, defining question to bring to the group.
    Nicole Kagan, BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2023
  • Goody was at the frontier of this new genre and helped to define it.
    V.m. Braganza, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Sep. 2023
  • Where are you supposed to find the time to define these three pieces?
    Bill Keen, Forbes, 12 Mar. 2021
  • At the heart of the debate has always been how to define open space.
    Shirley Leung, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Mar. 2021
  • Patrizia to life in the three decades that span the film and define her story.
    Lauren Valenti, Vogue, 1 Dec. 2021
  • The need to fight corruption is clear, but so is the need to define it.
    Elliott Abrams, National Review, 5 Oct. 2021
  • Johnson has one of the jobs that might, with luck, come to define our era.
    Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, 6 Aug. 2020
  • This was the first year the survey asked the questions, which didn’t define those terms.
    Nancy A. Youssef, WSJ, 1 Dec. 2022
  • Her mother used to tell her that the event wouldn’t define them.
    Emily Witt, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2021
  • John Lennon once said that your voice defines rock and roll.
    Jordan Runtagh, Peoplemag, 21 Dec. 2023
  • And it’s used by philosophers a lot to define a good life.
    Shayla Love, Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2023
  • Cheyenne Woods has always had to define her place in the pro golf world.
    Editors, USA TODAY, 12 July 2020
  • The poll doesn't define what a civil war would look like.
    Ledyard King, USA TODAY, 7 Oct. 2020
  • For better or worse, this fight would come to define him in the last years of his life.
    Keith Bierygolick, The Enquirer, 27 June 2020
  • The lines are just like foul lines on a baseball field, defining the field of play.
    Steve Lord, Aurora Beacon-News, 7 June 2019
  • Some of the many factors that help define prices at the pump are more mundane.
    Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2022
  • What was still to define was the structure of the leadership.
    Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 6 Sep. 2023
  • And lastly, define what getting back on track means for you in the short term and the longer term.
    Jasmine Browley, Essence, 24 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'define.' 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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