How to Use instructive in a Sentence

instructive

adjective
  • To the rest of the world, the hypocrisy is glaring and instructive.
    — Oona A. Hathaway, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024
  • Here, key lessons of the war in Ukraine are instructive.
    — Larry Diamond, Jim Ellis, Foreign Affairs, 17 July 2023
  • Here again the contrast with the Qur’an is instructive.
    — Christopher Beha, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019
  • But the fact Bayer was even in the game to begin with is instructive.
    — Chris Johnson, SI.com, 23 Mar. 2018
  • In that sense, the book’s title makes for an instructive play on words.
    — David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2021
  • The echoes from the earliest days of the Tea Party are instructive.
    — New York Times, 19 July 2022
  • One drama that’s played out in the background of the month’s events should be instructive for them.
    — Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 25 Nov. 2020
  • The instructive aspect of the day was as helpful as the guiding one.
    — Rebecca Misner, Condé Nast Traveler, 17 Mar. 2021
  • Even at an early stage, the creation of the tree can be instructive.
    — Cassie Werber, Quartz at Work, 7 Aug. 2019
  • There are instructive and hopeful lessons from the past.
    — Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, 21 Jan. 2021
  • And the seniors profiled in the story were full of good cheer: this was instructive.
    — Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023
  • The see-no-evil GOP response to the Comey firing is instructive.
    — Eugene Robinson, The Mercury News, 16 May 2017
  • But what Vegas thinks about the Beavers is instructive.
    — Bill Oram, oregonlive, 14 Dec. 2022
  • How might that be instructive, to observe the eclipse in this context?
    — Elizabeth Dias, Time, 18 Aug. 2017
  • The most instructive, for me, at least, was about her time working as a makeup artist.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 6 July 2022
  • But one of the day's most instructive cautionary tales took place in the heart of Europe.
    — Rick Noack, Washington Post, 6 July 2018
  • The case of Mitch Daniels is an instructive example of this.
    — Kyle Griesinger, National Review, 14 Aug. 2020
  • One of the most instructive moments is how many bad ideas there are that get abandoned.
    — Travis M. Andrews, Anchorage Daily News, 7 Dec. 2021
  • Sean McVay is instructive to how the Spanoses go about filling such a big job.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Oct. 2022
  • Truly, the life and career of Bouterse are instructive.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 8 Jan. 2025
  • The fact that only one player has filed her own case is instructive.
    — Michael McCann, SI.com, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Though The Hand is by no means his best work, its qualities are instructive.
    — Lidija Haas, The New Republic, 2 Dec. 2020
  • Just playing against a team with one of the best records in baseball is instructive for a young team that is trying to find its way.
    — Bob Ford, Philly.com, 28 June 2018
  • How far that gets the Heat in talking with Hayward and Blake Griffin is instructive in its own way.
    — Rob Mahoney, SI.com, 23 June 2017
  • Jackson-Davis said the in-home visit from Painter was instructive.
    — Kyle Neddenriep, Indianapolis Star, 17 Apr. 2018
  • No one wears a turtleneck sweater quite like Maxwell and the way his fit–close to his frame, but not at all clingy—are instructive for any man.
    — Caroline Reilly, Town & Country, 18 May 2021
  • More than a decade of guidance by Jarrah has been instructive, Kafeel says.
    — Rifat Malik, Dallas News, 28 Dec. 2020
  • But here is where my memory of that day on 14th Street is instructive.
    — Libby Watson, The New Republic, 17 June 2020
  • Trump and Musk’s public statements are instructive here.
    — Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 13 Feb. 2025
  • To understand this, the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, tragically, is highly instructive.
    — Richard Olsen, Forbes, 26 Jan. 2025

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