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.

Mr. Kuznetsov is his tautly reserved partner, spending much of the movie listening, observing, posing pointed questions, laconic but alert.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026

While it doesn’t venture far from its evident stage roots, neither does “What We Do Next,” a sinewy, tautly calibrated morality play, ever stray from the decidedly contemporary issues at its complex core.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 2, 2023

The superior execution of "Poker Face" through its tautly rendered one-and-done hours is likely to throw kindling on that fire, especially if it becomes the show that finally enables Peacock to achieve liftoff.

From Salon • Jan. 25, 2023

Horace Silver’s “Enchantment” is usually played as a tautly rhythmic samba, but the trio retrofits it, with Diehl putting the lush precision of his harmonies to work over a loose-limbed, shuffling beat from Sorey.

From New York Times • Jul. 8, 2022

The other young man, Joe Rantz, also a freshman, was nearly as tall, at six foot two and a half, but more tautly built, with broad shoulders and solid, powerful legs.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown