Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

When Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver and Seth Meyers appeared on the show, Colbert’s fellow late-night hosts joked — half-seriously — about who might be cancelled next.

From Salon • May 19, 2026

In one representative passage, So half-seriously, half-facetiously writes that Maddox Jolie Pitt, Angelina Jolie’s adopted son, is his “role model, because I’m still waiting for a rich white person to adopt me.”

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2023

She, only half-seriously, said her home address right now is the Olympic Village.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 8, 2022

He completed marathons in Boston, Washington, New York and Honolulu, and joked — half-seriously, it seemed — about leaving mediation behind to open a running-shoe store.

From Washington Post • Nov. 30, 2021

Gone, too, was “Perry O’Parsons,” the name invented for the singing sensation of stage and screen that he’d half-seriously hoped some day to be.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote