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.

That is why he also calls his hybrid house the “absorbatory,” self-mocking but sincere: “a place to take it in, to dissolve, if such a thing is possible, the boundary between self and world.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

It was those sounds that opened her Glastonbury set, with the crunchy riffs of Obsessed, a self-mocking song about her jealousy; and the semi-autobiographical Diary Of A Homeschooled Girl.

From BBC • Jun. 29, 2025

Helped by Siddhartha Khosla’s score, the show occasionally achieves a lightly engaging, subtly self-mocking Hitchcockian vibe.

From New York Times • Mar. 24, 2023

The latest, “Miscellaneous Letters,” again shows the “Sage of Providence” as funny, self-mocking, critically shrewd and exceptionally painstaking in answering his mail.

From Washington Post • Feb. 24, 2023

“I don’t even have a television,” Grace said, with a self-mocking sigh.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie