How to Use masterly in a Sentence

masterly

adjective

• She did a masterly job of organizing the conference.
• Then there was his masterly comic rhythm, an old school rat-a-tat that got right to the point.
  — Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 11 May 2020
• This has long been the stuff of Don DeLillo’s masterly fiction.
  — David Marchesephoto Illustration By Bráulio Amado, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2020
• This is Chico Marx level humor, and the kind of line the masterly Mr. Mosley uses to calibrate the mood.
  — John Anderson, WSJ, 10 Mar. 2022
• For the Times, Carl Zimmer has written his obit, in masterly fashion.
  — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 29 Dec. 2021
• In the composer’s masterly songs, the solemn and the sensual collide.
  — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2020
• Merritt’s oil-on-paper technique can be masterly, and his eye doesn’t just dwell on the surface.
  — Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times, 6 June 2017
• In the meantime, there are ways to view Balanchine’s masterly two-act, six-scene ballet, to the music of Felix Mendelssohn, on the home screen, some just a click away.
  — Robert Greskovic, WSJ, 31 Mar. 2020
• His previous book was a masterly study of the American empires of Britain and Spain.
  — The Economist, 12 July 2018
• He was succeeded by Ronald Reagan, who did a masterly job of fusing might and right.
  — chicagotribune.com, 3 July 2017
• At her best, Ms. Gentry was a masterly writer and singer of slow songs delivered in a gentle, dry voice.
  — Marc Myers, WSJ, 25 Sep. 2018
• Aciman’s novel is a masterly portrayal of arousal and the selves forged by passion.
  — Joumana Khatib, New York Times, 19 Jan. 2018
• That’s not to say this installment, set in the early 1980s and directed by Michael Chaves rather than the masterly James Wan, who did the first two, has no pleasures to confer.
  — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 3 June 2021
• His main weapon proved to be his masterly platform performances, which numbered about 200 a year.
  — Martin Pugh, Slate Magazine, 14 Apr. 2017
• Yet Green was a masterly player and composer who was uniquely diverse in his range of styles.
  — Martin Johnson, WSJ, 17 Apr. 2018
• The picture of a masterly Putin calling every shot is apocryphal.
  — Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 13 Mar. 2018
• Here, those in the first few rows could see first-hand conductor Jordan de Souza’s masterly control of the mood and pacing in the crucial final passages.
  — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 14 Nov. 2021
• And the filmmaker—a cold term for such a masterly artist—has portrayed every bit of it with perfect clarity and not the slightest whiff of preachment.
  — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 21 Nov. 2018
• Signori is a masterly oil painter who builds images in the classical manner with a succession of glazes.
  — Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2021
• Years later, in the hands of this masterly storyteller, I am transported by Ms. O’Farrell’s alchemy.
  — WSJ, 11 Dec. 2020
• The result, though, is a masterly portrait of a titanic yet unfulfilled man.
  — The Economist, 22 Aug. 2019
• Given that New Haven is the home of Yale, its museums hold not only masterly works of art, but erudite vestiges of history and science, as well.
  — Julie Besonen, New York Times, 25 May 2017
• Indeed, Jason Koons’s masterly rendering of a coiled rope could be taken for a woodcut.
  — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 28 Nov. 2019
• Here, the simple running, jumping and stomping of Mario is taken to new heights with some masterly level and enemy design.
  — Paul Govan, WIRED, 18 Aug. 2008
• Sean Payton’s offense wouldn’t look nearly as masterly if its QB couldn’t make defenders move.
  — Andy Benoit, SI.com, 13 Mar. 2018
• Although his sharp eye and accurate ear capture a place, its people and a time in a masterly way, his work goes far beyond regionalism.
  — Washington Post, 23 Apr. 2022
• Filled with powerhouse turns, the sprawling drama reveals the 32-year-old writer-director to be a masterly filmmaker whose voice is one to be reckoned with.
  — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 May 2022
• The top-flight cinematographer Yorick Le Saux chases after the swirl of activity with a masterly eye for natural light, or light faked to look that way.
  — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 26 Nov. 2019
• The author does a masterly job of keeping all plot elements in play and in balance, and the complications only add to the satisfaction of the mystery’s eventual solution.
  — Tom Nolan, WSJ, 2 Sep. 2022
• Through her masterly use of evasive language and negative space, Kim whimsically exhorts us to connect.
  — New York Times, 16 Sep. 2022

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024