How to Use one-note in a Sentence
one-note
adjective-
Which isn’t to say that his style is one-note – it’s never been.
—Julian Randall, Essence, 24 May 2024
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The less said about Kraven's snarling, one-note performance, the better.
—Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 17 Oct. 2023
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Zoom in: The Balkan beer scene is one-note, by American craft beer standards.
—Sam Allard, Axios, 17 Sep. 2024
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In the hands of a less talented filmmaker, The Babadook could have been a one-note story.
—Jennifer M. Wood, WIRED, 25 Oct. 2024
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As such, the role could have easily been reduced to a bit part or a one-note villain.
—TIME, 13 Oct. 2023
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And although one of Patrick’s gifts to us is her honesty, at times the book felt repetitive and too one-note.
—Steven Petrow, Washington Post, 14 May 2023
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Slow, ballad-y verses that build to an epic one-note melody chorus.
—Eli Miller, Vulture, 16 June 2023
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The best of both worlds, caramel balayage instantly adds warmth and dimension to even the most plain and one-note hair colors.
—Danielle Sinay, Glamour, 3 Dec. 2024
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Wilson is a skilled actor who doesn’t play a one-note foil for Momoa’s antics.
—Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2023
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Fabian is mostly a one-note character, and that’s the note—peeved outrage.
—Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 8 Feb. 2024
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Rather than a one-note visual, moody blue is a whole-body experience.
—Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 4 Oct. 2024
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Audiences could safely assume the movies’ one-note joke — a children’s toy that swears like a grown-up! — had run its course.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 11 Jan. 2024
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The actress indeed does a lot with a role that could easily be one-note, stealing nearly every scene in the process.
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Nov. 2023
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Lively’s charm can only carry Lily so far before the character starts to feel too one-note.
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Aug. 2024
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His keyboard player Kenny, king of the one-note solo, is holding down that B-flat organ key while waiting for the changes to come around again and catch up to his note.
—Bart Bull, SPIN, 20 Feb. 2023
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For all that, his Arthur remains a lowly outsider, with a downcast gaze, a peevish temper, and a deep well of melancholy that never feels one-note.
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2024
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Almut cringes at the idea of being commemorated in such a one-note fashion.
—Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 10 Oct. 2024
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In what at first feels like a one-note role, Maupas subtly finds the depths of hope beneath Severino’s judgmental surface.
—Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Aug. 2023
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But by and large, they’re mostly introduced as a series of one-note obstacles whose defeat brings Deku one step closer to Dark Might.
—David Opie, IndieWire, 7 Oct. 2024
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The system doesn’t typify one-note characters, just as real life shouldn’t.
—WIRED, 26 July 2023
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Russia is pretty much a one-note economy: Fossil fuel exports pay the bills.
—David Cay Johnston, The New Republic, 30 Mar. 2023
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A little of this goes a very long way, especially when the Bandits themselves are relatively one-note.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 23 July 2024
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That isn’t to say that Lolly Adefope isn’t an enjoyable screen presence, however, even if Dag feels a little limited and one-note on the page.
—Jack King, Vulture, 24 Nov. 2024
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For all the wit and care of the performances, Malcolm and JB register as one-note ciphers because the adaptation cuts them down to little more than plot functionaries.
—David Benedict, Variety, 5 Apr. 2023
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Beethoven’s Fifth, ending Saturday’s program, appeared to be headed the same direction after a one-note first movement.
—Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 14 July 2024
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Designers never walk into a single showroom or store and outfit an entire room; that would result in an overly trendy, one-note design.
—Ryan Conner, Dallas News, 10 Mar. 2023
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Lynch is nuanced enough to make Frank a memorably self-loathing villain instead of a one-note stooge, which ultimately makes the show more rewarding as a drama than as comedy.
—Chris Klimek, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2024
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The later films in the original Apes series struggle with creating a compelling human element, and the humans in Battle are painfully one-note.
—Barry Levitt, Vulture, 10 May 2024
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The aspects that his acolytes push into one-note histrionics or weirder-than-thou eccentricity are all here, but in the right proportions, with dancers who have been trained and coached to maintain the right frequencies.
—Brian Seibert, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2023
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As Younger Elliott, Stella’s performance does, too, adding a level of depth and relatability to a character who might have come across as angst-ridden and one-note in any other movie.
—Katherine Singh, refinery29.com, 13 Sep. 2024
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'one-note.' 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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