How to Use not long ago in a Sentence

not long ago

idiom
  • One evening not long ago, the neon sign at the Hotel Clark clicked on.
    Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2023
  • There was a time not long ago when that was the whole point of building these things.
    Vijith Assar, WIRED, 20 Dec. 2022
  • What a change that would be for a team that was struggling to find two starters not long ago.
    Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 18 July 2024
  • Juxtaposed against where the Chiefs and the old San Diego Chargers stood not long ago?
    Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Feb. 2024
  • One morning not long ago, Wang came across a bag full of fish abandoned by the side of the water.
    Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 19 July 2023
  • Until not long ago, it was thought of as clothes for poor people.
    Richard Kestenbaum, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024
  • And, in the case of Sydney’s CBD, that would have been an apt description not long ago.
    Adam H. Graham, WSJ, 13 Dec. 2023
  • His wife suggested not long ago that they should get rid of them, maybe sell them on eBay.
    Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2023
  • That’s miles away from the dark predictions issued not long ago.
    Matt Egan, CNN, 5 June 2023
  • There was a time not long ago when, for most around the world, tearing up the dance floor was but a distant memory.
    Liam Hess, Vogue, 15 Dec. 2022
  • There was a time, not long ago, when Pugh did, at least to outside observers, seem to have the pieces together.
    Chloe Schama, Vogue, 12 Jan. 2023
  • Aside from a few exclusions, everything in the store was 75% off not long ago.
    Georgea Kovanis, Detroit Free Press, 17 Aug. 2024
  • One even got very emotional about it, having lost their dad to the disease not long ago.
    Amy Drew Thompson, Orlando Sentinel, 16 July 2024
  • The walkaround, or WA for short, debuted at Cannes in August and the second unit was launched not long ago.
    Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 10 Oct. 2022
  • Here, you’re reminded of how the city’s story shattered not long ago.
    Julyssa Lopez, Rolling Stone, 29 May 2023
  • But the Lake Travis product was a high-profile recruit himself not long ago.
    Nick Moyle, San Antonio Express-News, 13 Aug. 2022
  • One winter day not long ago, a reporter from the Sacramento Bee called.
    Ned Rozell, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Dec. 2022
  • And not long ago, that big, immovable paperweight was ready to lift off.
    Steve Hartman, CBS News, 11 Aug. 2023
  • Missing three starters forced them to promote three players who were part of their second unit not long ago.
    Dustin Dopirak, The Indianapolis Star, 16 Jan. 2024
  • Quite a ride for a guy who not long ago was working on a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia.
    Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2023
  • There was a time not long ago when Margot Robbie was synonymous with Chanel.
    Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 12 Feb. 2024
  • There was a time, not long ago, at the height of the #MeToo era that followed, when each morning brought with it a new, shocking allegation.
    Annie Berke, Washington Post, 22 Nov. 2022
  • When asked not long ago about prospects for a fifth Superman installment, Reeve looked down at his torso and laughed.
    People Staff, Peoplemag, 27 May 2024
  • Jelly, an avid golfer, tried to buy a house in a community with its own course not long ago and was rejected.
    Melinda Newman, Billboard, 1 June 2023
  • Jelly, an avid golfer, tried to buy a house in a community with its own course not long ago and was rejected.
    Melinda Newman, Billboard, 1 June 2023
  • There was a time — not long ago — when there was near-universal agreement, if not about what should be in school libraries, then at least about what shouldn’t be there.
    Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 11 May 2024
  • In the distance, the scraggly skeletons of tall, once-majestic trees reach up out of the cordgrass, a reminder that not long ago this wasn’t marshland at all.
    Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 11 Apr. 2024
  • The business started documenting the bus rides not long ago and found that animal lovers couldn't get enough.
    Brenton Blanchet, Peoplemag, 13 Jan. 2023
  • Such an increase was seen as unusually large not long ago.
    Isabella Simonetti, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2022
  • There was a time, not long ago, when a rhetorical slip could sink a presidential campaign.
    Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 7 Apr. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'not long ago.' 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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