How to Use decency in a Sentence

decency

noun
  • Have you no sense of decency?
  • If you're going to be late, please have the decency to call and let me know.
  • Decency, not fear of punishment, caused them to do the right thing.
  • He had been taught to observe the ordinary decencies.
  • Sending aid to the victims was simply a matter of common decency.
  • His mix of bone-dry humour and innate decency are the perfect foil for the film's welling emotions.
    The Week Uk, theweek, 21 Nov. 2024
  • What has stuck with many of Volcker’s friends was his decency and humanity.
    BostonGlobe.com, 11 Dec. 2019
  • Rhys gives a finely textured performance, capturing the essential decency of a guy who’s often kind of a jerk.
    Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 22 Nov. 2019
  • The protesters are willing to use violence in the service of decency and their way of life—to burn universities in order to save them.
    The Economist, 21 Nov. 2019
  • Democracy, decency, truth, and the environment have taken a hit.
    Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 24 Nov. 2024
  • The Palestinians want it for the future state to which history, world opinion and simple decency entitle them.
    Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 13 Nov. 2024
  • To family and friends, she was known as Bea Kristol, and embodied character and decency, good humor, and good sense.
    Yuval Levin, National Review, 31 Dec. 2019
  • Like a dress with pockets, the purse hook is an everyday design feature that is so practical that its absence feels like a betrayal of common sense and human decency.
    Soleil Ho, SFChronicle.com, 11 Nov. 2019
  • Public decency and morality laws are taken seriously here.
    Jenna Scatena, Condé Nast Traveler, 11 Nov. 2019
  • Americans will be reminded that there is nothing — save for peaceful foreign policy and sound budgeting — that both parties can agree to reject as damnable and beyond the bounds of decency.
    Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 23 Oct. 2019
  • The theft was proof of the end of the civic decency that had reigned in the first months of the Covid era.
    Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 1 Nov. 2020
  • The guy didn’t even have the decency to tell her in person.
    Al Pacino, The New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2024
  • But the thing that was so tough about that one is that no one even had the decency to pan us.
    Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2022
  • And Joe Biden's decency comes through and makes that -- takes that off the table.
    ABC News, 2 May 2021
  • If the person has any sense of decency, that should not be long.
    Washington Post, 28 Mar. 2022
  • The night did see Trump at least tip his cap to reason and decency, in parts.
    Rey Mashayekhi, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2020
  • The life lessons learned: If your adorable co-worker is in love with you, have the decency to love them back.
    Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 19 July 2024
  • And that is to return this country to a sense of decency.
    Gromer Jeffers Jr., Dallas News, 4 Mar. 2020
  • But against all of that is the deep vein of decency that grounds America.
    Ali Martin, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Feb. 2024
  • The telecast didn’t keep showing the tackle out of a sense of decency.
    Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2023
  • They were also asked about whether Trump and Biden had a sense of decency.
    Russell Blair, courant.com, 22 Oct. 2020
  • What's at stake here is the rule of law, human decency, and world order.
    ABC News, 19 Feb. 2023
  • Spencer Cox ran on decency and is passing up the chance to be decent.
    Paighten Harkins, The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Nov. 2021
  • His talent will live on for a long time, but the loss of his kindness and decency leaves a hole in our hearts.
    Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, 1 July 2020
  • All the extra eyes have left coaches foaming at the mouth to teach Deion and the Buffs a lesson in decency.
    Tyler R. Tynes, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2023

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