How to Use sardonic in a Sentence

sardonic

adjective
  • The movie is a sardonic look at modern life.
  • The 5-foot-1 Clary sported a beret and a sardonic smile as Cpl.
    Lynn Elber, USA TODAY, 18 Nov. 2022
  • The song makes such a sardonic point about his relationship, with the guy in the house.
    Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 4 May 2024
  • If sardonic lyrics are your thing, McMurtry has to be on your radar.
    idahostatesman, 20 July 2017
  • If this were a Hitchcock film, the shooting might put a sardonic cap on the drama.
    Lloyd Sachs, chicagotribune.com, 16 May 2017
  • If nothing else, this waltz demonstrates his taste for the sardonic, and wry.
    David Allen, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2023
  • Our sardonic superhero needs to get the timing just right to crash through the sunroof and beat up the bad guys.
    Rhett Allain, Wired, 23 Dec. 2020
  • That’s perfect because your games all to seem to have a bit of that sardonic, dry humor in them.
    Patrick Shanley, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 June 2019
  • A lot of actors could have played him as a sardonic quipster.
    James Poniewozik, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2023
  • The game has the aesthetic and charm of a sardonic graphic novel.
    E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2021
  • Though sardonic in essence, the close to two-minute scene portrayed in the ad has resounded with some doctors.
    María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post, 28 July 2022
  • Bond was how Fleming saw himself; the sardonic, cruel mouth; the hard, tight-skinned face.
    Paul Duncan, Vulture, 24 May 2024
  • But for me too many of the poems are either trivial or sardonic.
    Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Benioff, who wears his hair in a Morrissey quiff, is the more sardonic one.
    TIME.com, 30 June 2017
  • She’s got that sardonic sense of humor down pat, and she’s starred in two movies about motherhood.
    Eliana Dockterman, TIME, 30 May 2024
  • Munch’s sardonic demeanor turned out to be perfect for the grim tone of the series, and Belzer stayed 14 seasons.
    Chris Koseluk, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Feb. 2023
  • Not because that sardonic video prologue begged them to do so.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Bush has a wide-eyed openness and Navia something more wryly sardonic, and the contrast works well.
    Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 May 2022
  • And then there are the welcome flashes of sardonic humor.
    Star Tribune, 9 July 2021
  • The movie also takes a sardonic, sidelong look at the problems that arise when the main motive for health care providers is the profit motive.
    Gary Thompson, Philly.com, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Midge makes a new friend at the club, a booker named Susie—butch, sardonic, ambitious—played by Alex Borstein, who gets many of the show’s best lines and deserves them.
    Caitlin Flanagan, The Atlantic, 9 Apr. 2018
  • Then there are the art students, mostly YouTubing their sardonic take on art.
    Momus, WIRED, 24 Apr. 2007
  • There is tragedy lurking beneath the sardonic humor of these works.
    Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 15 Dec. 2023
  • Meg’s lips rose in a sardonic smile, the force of her stare intensifying.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 10 July 2024
  • Even in the dramatic context, Bel-Air could use more of that sardonic spirit.
    Darren Franich, EW.com, 10 Feb. 2022
  • That’s when Regina’s sardonic sister (Wanda Skyes, the show’s co-creator) steps in and lets him and his reprobate pals have it.
    Jeanne Jakle, San Antonio Express-News, 21 Apr. 2021
  • His style was to yell into the camera, in a voice reminiscent of Andy Kaufman, or of a sardonic game-show host.
    Anna Heyward, The New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2017
  • The film is sardonic about modelling, but there’s nothing satirical in its view of the business or of the couple’s self-aware place in it.
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2022
  • Only this time, she’s all grown up and has a sardonic daughter of her own played by reigning scream queen Jenna Ortega—she of Wednesday Addams fame.
    Tish Weinstock, Vogue, 31 Aug. 2024
  • However, her inner voice reveals a sardonic sense of humor, cunning intellect, and keen eye for details most people would miss…because Emily has a big secret.
    Lynette Rice, Deadline, 16 Sep. 2024

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