How to Use purposely in a Sentence

purposely

adverb
  • The oak floors and white wall behind the bed are purposely left bare.
    Catherine Hong, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 Aug. 2023
  • The most impressive thing about the sketch is the purposely bad singing.
    Rosa Escandon, Forbes, 13 Oct. 2024
  • Hunter alleges that during the next take, Goth purposely kicked him in the head with her boot.
    Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 12 Jan. 2024
  • Not much is known about the plot of the Barbie film, which has purposely been kept under wraps.
    Alyssa Bailey, ELLE, 3 July 2022
  • The Toros came out with Wolfe purposely missing the second free throw.
    Richard Obert, The Arizona Republic, 1 Mar. 2023
  • The models reached the end and posed under a spotlight, in front of a trash can that had been purposely tipped over.
    Chicago Tribune, Orange County Register, 1 Feb. 2024
  • But the owners and builders purposely left some fire scars on the exterior of the house.
    Christine Lennon, Sunset Magazine, 11 Sep. 2023
  • Houston is what the Dolphins were in 2019 — a purposely bad team in a rebuild.
    Keven Lerner, sun-sentinel.com, 4 Nov. 2021
  • Defense lawyers have claimed that Mr. Singer made the plan seem above board and purposely misled their clients.
    Brian Whitton, WSJ, 6 Oct. 2021
  • Not back yet Canada is the only healthy piece of the Sparks’ back court that Miller purposely stacked with ball-handlers.
    Thuc Nhi Nguyen, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2023
  • My description just above is rather vague about time and place -- and purposely so.
    Christian Schneider, National Review, 11 May 2023
  • For the last few months, Megan purposely stepped back from social media in order to heal.
    Alyssa Bailey, ELLE, 19 Apr. 2023
  • But are the Cardinals purposely trying to lose games in 2023?
    Jeremy Cluff, The Arizona Republic, 26 Aug. 2023
  • One day, a tall, bulky man leaned around my Plexiglas shield and purposely coughed.
    New York Times, 22 Sep. 2021
  • Did your purposely pick songs people wouldn’t expect to hear from you?
    Dana Rose Falcone, Peoplemag, 14 Dec. 2023
  • The income tax universe was not designed for the way the wealthy have their wealth today, but it wasn’t designed purposely not to tax them.
    ProPublica, 6 Aug. 2021
  • The video shows that the crossing barriers were down and the red lights were flashing when the driver turned from a side street and seemed to purposely go around the gate and into the train’s path.
    Terry Spencer, orlandosentinel.com, 16 Feb. 2022
  • Not that Noah is now purposely testing out melodies to his dad for future album use.
    Rodney Ho, ajc, 22 July 2022
  • In addition, the cables have been purposely left dangling at the back in a nod to the original arcade games.
    Demetrius Simms, Robb Report, 30 Jan. 2024
  • And that’s exactly how the evening felt, purposely perfect.
    Eliseé Browchuk, Vogue, 4 Aug. 2023
  • Life is hard enough without purposely messing with a person's head and heart.
    Stacey Grant, Seventeen, 30 Mar. 2023
  • But the approach would end up prompting accusations that Biden’s team had purposely kept the public in the dark.
    Anchorage Daily News, 18 Jan. 2023
  • Authorities believe the tire had been placed there purposely so Jared would have to stop.
    Michael Nardi, NBC News, 16 Mar. 2023
  • In 1932, one pilot purposely flew her plane into a floating Tom-Cat in hopes of catching it.
    Janaya Wecker, Good Housekeeping, 14 Nov. 2022
  • Rules don't change until there's a movement big enough to purposely break them and show why something is better.
    Colin Lodewick, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2022
  • Some people reacted to the errant self-driving car by claiming that the AI purposely ran the Stop sign.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2022
  • The gold-standard study, called a human challenge study, involves purposely giving people a dose of the pathogen.
    WIRED, 19 Nov. 2023
  • The singing is purposely strained, off-tune, and often unsettling.
    Mia Sato, The Verge, 23 July 2024
  • Regardless, Ayton missed the first attempt, then purposely missed the second in hopes of a Suns putback score.
    oregonlive, 22 Oct. 2022
  • There are also styles that were purposely designed inside-out with exposed seams.
    Rosemary Feitelberg, WWD, 17 Sep. 2024

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