How to Use imperative in a Sentence

imperative

1 of 2 adjective

• People resented his imperative tone of voice.
• We had a long and interesting evening with the Katzenbachs. He and Lyndon discussed the imperative need to make Washington a law-abiding city and how to go about it.
  — Lady Bird Johnson, 27 Jan. 1965
• And that’s not the imperative here for this White House.
  — WSJ, 6 Feb. 2017
• And this is a part Foltz said is imperative not to skip.
  — Kathrine Nero, The Enquirer, 25 Apr. 2021
• The Bengals found out the hard way that a good line is imperative.
  — cleveland, 17 Feb. 2022
• That means playing the hits — and even among those, the most streamed — is imperative.
  — Rebecca Milzoff, Billboard, 25 Aug. 2022
• Will’s imperative, by his own lights, has been to make a life for Tom.
  — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 28 June 2018
• Soul is the imperative governing all of his music: the will to move the crowd.
  — Adam Bradley Adam Bradley Photographs By D’angelo Lovell Williams Styled By Ian Bradley Nick Haramis Photographs By Lise Sarfati Styled By Suzanne Koller Sasha Weiss Photographs By Justin French Susan Dominus Photographs By Luis Alberto Rodriguez Styled By Charlotte Collet, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2022
• And the Wall Street imperative now is too strong to resist.
  — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 11 Dec. 2020
• Having a guy like that on the floor with those four is imperative.
  — Duane Rankin, The Arizona Republic, 22 Feb. 2023
• The topics might be heavy, the mood might be heavy, but finding the right words is imperative.
  — Mary Schumacher, chicagotribune.com, 27 Aug. 2019
• The fight to build power is imperative, so that’s our work for when this strike is over.
  — Rebecca Sun, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Aug. 2023
• In the moment when a phone rang, there was an imperative.
  — Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic, 31 May 2018
• Sharp blades on all our tools are an imperative to avoid bruising the canes and stems.
  — Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Jan. 2023
• So what Ted Cruz did is ignore the moral imperative here to speak out . .
  — Sarah Ellison, The Hive, 11 July 2017
• Of course, this goes against the business imperative to grow.
  — Caroline Mimbs Nyce, The Atlantic, 8 Mar. 2024
• Research is all about the biggest bang, but the imperative for products is bang-for-the-buck.
  — Scott Kirsner, BostonGlobe.com, 6 July 2018
• As part of that, the academic side of things is imperative for his team.
  — James T. Norman, chicagotribune.com, 11 Feb. 2022
• To help rebuild the land of my people is a moral imperative.
  — Marjua Estevez, Billboard, 23 Oct. 2017
• Giving someone the space and sense of safety to cry in front of you is imperative.
  — Lydia Wang, Women's Health, 25 May 2023
• Coffee, of course, is imperative and often the first step for me.
  — Autumn Thatcher, The Salt Lake Tribune, 29 Dec. 2021
• So each has embraced the same imperative: Take the other out.
  — Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2016
• To be clear, there is nothing wrong with a week of takeout, no moral imperative to cook.
  — Jessica Battilana, SFChronicle.com, 13 Nov. 2020
• With four kids — three of whom are now driving — finding a home with a garage was imperative.
  — Lennie Omalza, The Courier-Journal, 2 June 2022
• Which just goes to show that getting those stops will be imperative.
  — Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Aug. 2020
• The scale of wealth concentration in a few hands makes a wealth tax imperative.
  — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2021
• All of the above will be imperative because the market itself has not been a great selling point.
  — oregonlive, 15 Apr. 2022
• To keep the layers from looking too blunt, twisting the hair is imperative.
  — Allure, 7 Sep. 2017
• In the years leading up to and during the production of Schindler’s List, immersing myself in the darkness of the Holocaust was imperative.
  — Alli Rosenbloom, CNN, 25 Mar. 2024
• Health will be imperative, especially for a bullpen already missing two key arms (Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen both opened the season on the injured list).
  — Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 24 Mar. 2024

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imperative

2 of 2 noun

• She considers it a moral imperative to help people in need.
• Maybe the imperative got in his head, but Taylor can’t put the ball on the ground.
  — Jim Ayello, The Indianapolis Star, 8 Nov. 2020
• Here is a war with a clear front line with a clear moral imperative.
  — David Marchese David Marchese Photograph By Mamadi Doumbouya, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2023
• For many of the veterans involved in the effort, the work feels like a moral imperative.
  — Jennifer Hansler, CNN, 25 Aug. 2021
• And along with all the above, a constant imperative: Write the fullest truth about what and who shaped this man’s multitudes.
  — Mitchell S. Jackson, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2023
• My job as an actor is to look at the human being and to look at the human imperative and to see what that is.
  — David Marchesephotograph By Mamadi Doumbouya, New York Times, 27 Sep. 2021
• In one myth, they are locked in conflict, sparring over the claims of reason and the imperative of power.
  — Corey Robin, The New Yorker, 12 Nov. 2020
• This is an imperative to be present, to take extra care.
  — Joseph Lezza, Longreads, 30 Mar. 2023
• The suits have a moral imperative to share—and share widely—in this new industry.
  — Andrew Deangelo, Forbes, 28 Apr. 2021
• What followed for Willson was a new life on the water and an imperative to shore up the ship and find safe harbor.
  — Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Oct. 2020
• This is an unmitigated good (and one that is a moral imperative to extend to the rest of the world).
  — Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic, 15 Aug. 2021
• His time with Perry gave him a new creative imperative: to be quick with his work.
  — Krystal Rodriguez, Billboard, 18 June 2019
• The reason to focus here isn’t just the moral imperative or as a recruitment tool.
  — Joe Karbowski, Forbes, 7 July 2021
• Still, there is a web of compelling reasons the events since Oct. 7 have made the two-state solution more like a two-state imperative for Mr. Biden.
  — Ned Temko, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Dec. 2023
• Ukraine’s imperative was to strike back before the Russians had time to regroup.
  — Karen Deyoung, Washington Post, 14 June 2023
• The leagues have a moral imperative to find a way to remove him from their midst and force the sale of both clubs to owners who will restore integrity to them.
  — Bill Oram, oregonlive, 5 Oct. 2022
• No other course of action is equal to the urgent crises and the democratic imperative of our present.
  — Ryan D. Doerfler, The New Republic, 13 Oct. 2020
• The imperative of the streaming boom is to turn the content spigot to full blast, but that makes content seem forgettable and cheap.
  — New York Times, 22 Dec. 2021
• That imperative can either push them to act or restrain them.
  — Phillips P. O’Brien, Foreign Affairs, 29 June 2023
• In other words, his first imperative was not — did not appear to be — power.
  — New York Times, 7 Mar. 2021
• The question now is whether a shot in the arm will be viewed as a national imperative or government overreach.
  — Zachary B. Wolf, CNN, 10 Sep. 2021
• Even the cosmic imperative for the three realms to exist in harmony are mentioned.
  — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 24 Jan. 2020
• Both are part of what IBM calls its strategic imperatives: faster-growing...
  — Steven Russolillo, WSJ, 17 Apr. 2017
• And Ben Ferencz took on the moral imperative of prosecuting the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials.
  — Lee Cowan, CBS News, 31 Dec. 2023
• Rich countries do not only have a moral imperative to act.
  — Mark Suzman september 8, Foreign Affairs, 8 Sep. 2023
• While this happened, there were two competing imperatives that controllers and the crew had to work under.
  — Eric Berger & Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica, 11 Apr. 2020
• For many creatives, this is a business imperative that needs to be baked into union contracts.
  — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 28 Feb. 2023
• The second is to recognize that longer lives create a new health imperative of ageing well..
  — London Business School, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2021
• In the eyes of Washington, the cost of endangering an important relationship eclipsed the moral imperative of punishing Saudi violations.
  — Rochelle Terman, Foreign Affairs, 27 Mar. 2024
• This is a powerful reminder that sustainability is not just a moral imperative, but a competitive advantage.
  — Ross Meyercord, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024