How to Use tone-deaf in a Sentence

tone-deaf

adjective

• But Met Gala was a tone-deaf charade of excess and hypocrisy.
  — Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY, 8 May 2024
• It’s lined with palm trees that always seem out of place to me, tone-deaf in their presence.
  — Hazlitt, 28 June 2022
• Negishi’s death was announced this week, at the age of 100, which means a century of making the world a louder, more tone-deaf place.
  — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 16 Mar. 2024
• This is an offensive and tone-deaf gesture that holds the people in contempt.
  — Town & Country, 6 May 2023
• Left-leaning users have called the campaign’s posts tone-deaf in light of the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.
  — Makena Kelly, WIRED, 24 Feb. 2024
• Lavender went on a listening tour with customers, who were quick to share that Intel had been tone-deaf.
  — Fortune Editors, Fortune, 5 June 2024
• Sure, the new ad is tone-deaf — after all, Apple rose to prominence by aligning itself with creative types.
  — Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, 9 May 2024
• Josh McDaniels must’ve been tone-deaf and inept, judging by the gusto Raiders players have shown since his dismissal.
  — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Dec. 2023
• According to a 1968 Times report, MacRae was originally cast to play a tone-deaf lounge singer for a single episode.
  — Malia Mendez, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2024
• The commenters had an absolute field day with what many view as a tone-deaf and retrogressive fashion shoot.
  — Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 28 Nov. 2023
• To some who identify as huge fans of Swift – presumably the group being courted – the outcry is both tone-deaf and flattering.
  — Andre Mouchard, Orange County Register, 4 Feb. 2024
• The tone-deaf response by college students and left-wing activists has been matched by statements from the halls of power that are equally callous toward Palestinian lives.
  — TIME, 14 Oct. 2023
• But the Me Too–riffing story line involving Alice, which makes for some rough riding throughout the season, gets off to a particularly rocky and tone-deaf start here.
  — Larry Fitzmaurice, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2024
• Large brands have made famously tone-deaf commercials that left viewers wondering why the decision-makers lacked eyes to see the problem.
  — Gregory Crawford, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024
• Democrats mocked the tone-deaf exercise, which came as GOP lawmakers push the nation to the brink of default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling without punishing cuts to social programs.
  — Dave Goldiner New York Daily News (tns), al, 26 Jan. 2023
• As an example, consider the word ‘tone-deaf,’ which is often used in professional settings to describe how a message won’t land.
  — Kavitha Prabhakar, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2023
• But from the pageantry of the tropical getaway, accusations of the trip being tone-deaf coupled with the memory of Tarte’s past faux pas have created a massive discussion online.
  — Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 8 Mar. 2024
• But critics have called it tone-deaf — with several marketing experts noting the campaign’s execution missed the mark.
  — Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Fortune, 9 May 2024
• These two aren’t alone delivering tone-deaf missives over virtual meetings.
  — Allison Morrow, CNN, 20 Apr. 2023
• Some anti-monarchists consider the gesture unnecessary and tone-deaf.
  — Conor Murray, Forbes, 5 May 2023
• The Defense secretary, a retired Army general, has shown himself to be politically tone-deaf.
  — Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 15 Jan. 2024
• But to travel so far (7,000 miles round-trip), with so many resulting carbon emissions, and to a place especially sensitive to the ravages of global warming, felt irresponsible and tone-deaf.
  — Kate Siber, Outside Online, 8 Mar. 2023
• Behind the incident was an innocent-enough but perhaps tone-deaf college student game called Senior Assassins.
  — Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Apr. 2024
• At the start of this year, even an internet company tellingly had enough of workforce flexibility, releasing a video that made headlines for its mandate’s tone-deaf messaging.
  — Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 5 Feb. 2024
• Criticism of the social media comments came from one resident, another felt the expense for the event was misguided and a third said the social media critics who labeled Highland Park tone-deaf know little about the city’s character.
  — Steve Sadin, Chicago Tribune, 12 Sep. 2023
• After all the statements and policy debates, the party has portrayed Abbott as tone-deaf, personally unsympathetic and cruel.
  — Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, Washington Post, 2 May 2023
• This is a failure of execution; Beijing has often been tone-deaf, leaving it particularly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of democratic politics.
  — Audrye Wong, Foreign Affairs, 20 Apr. 2021
• As such, introducing exclusionary hiring practices is not only tone-deaf but also counterproductive.
  — Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2023

Last Updated: 1 Nov 2024