How to Use not merely in a Sentence

not merely

idiom
Definition of not merelynext
  • Soon, Old Glory will have to be born in the land of the free and not merely flying over it.
    — Patrick Whittle, Fortune, 29 July 2024
  • Erik Adolph, the UberEats driver at the heart of this case, is not merely a plaintiff.
    — David Astoria, Fortune, 28 Aug. 2023
  • Do not merely use the edge of each tile to estimate each row of tile.
    — Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 21 Mar. 2024
  • The new whiskies are robust and complex in their flavor, not merely spicy like many ryes.
    — Florence Fabricant, New York Times, 5 Feb. 2024
  • The beautiful trick that Banks pulls off as the adult MJ is to embody, not merely mimic.
    — Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post, 12 Apr. 2024
  • The 1963 March on Washington did not merely come together on its own via a whim, a wish, and good will.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 15 Nov. 2023
  • The indictment did not merely accuse Trump of holding on to all these files.
    — Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman, BostonGlobe.com, 9 June 2023
  • For on Juneteenth, we are reminded that freedom is not merely a gift, but a task — one that falls to us, the living, to complete.
    — Tribune News Service, Hartford Courant, 17 June 2024
  • And the lack of tooth marks on the bones of the dinosaur suggests the mammal was actively hunting—not merely scavenging—its meal.
    — Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 July 2023
  • Wilson was not merely a man of his time who shared its common prejudices.
    — Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 6 Feb. 2024
  • However, this rotation of sweet or salty snacks winding their way through the office may not merely be a force of habit.
    — Eleanor Pringle, Fortune Well, 26 Oct. 2023
  • It wasn’t manufactured or rehearsed; just the siblings in a dark room, not merely singing but feeling the bitter heartbreak of the song.
    — Cat Cardenas, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2023
  • For white rulers, this was not merely a local rebellion but a threat to the global governance of white supremacy.
    — Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús / Made By History, TIME, 4 Oct. 2024
  • Well, Singh’s comments went over like a patron talking on a cellphone here, not merely wrong, but an affront to what makes the Masters the Masters.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 16 Apr. 2024
  • The brothers insist, however, that the graphic fluids that drench the movie’s walls and fabrics were not merely for shock effect.
    — Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 7 Sep. 2024
  • In the popular imagination, she is not merely supposed to win; she is supposed to win by body lengths.
    — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 28 July 2024
  • But a brand’s legacy is not merely built on financial success.
    — Nerisha Penrose, ELLE, 18 Apr. 2023
  • And some experts say NYCB is not merely an isolated hiccup for a single lender that got out over its skis.
    — Allison Morrow, CNN, 8 Mar. 2024
  • Here was an environment that was not merely defined by absence, but thrived on it.
    — Hazlitt, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Meeting the moment means ushering in systemic change, experts said — not merely putting pink on brochures.
    — Brittany Shammas, Washington Post, 16 Jan. 2024
  • The snippet is not merely a hook, or a catchy verse, but a short burst of music that has become a distinct form of communication — part of the unique language of short-form video feeds.
    — Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 28 June 2023
  • American workers are not merely victims of that life but the literal creators of it.
    — Emily Harnett, Harper's Magazine, 26 Apr. 2024
  • The court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education was not merely a moral statement but a political one.
    — Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Mota finds uncharted ground in not merely rethinking the future but rewriting the past.
    — Emily Hart, New York Times, 10 June 2023
  • The deeper trouble with the PA is not merely a matter of execution or personnel.
    — Raja Khalidi, Foreign Affairs, 19 Mar. 2024
  • Yet Yoshida has not merely begun to learn about Williams but, in at least one remarkable aspect, started evoking him.
    — Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 15 July 2023
  • But the boards affected by the bill are often not merely innocuous groups that throw out ideas for policymakers to adopt.
    — Mercury News & East Bay Times Editorial, The Mercury News, 4 June 2024
  • All eyes are on Paris, not merely for its iconic Eiffel Tower, but for the nostalgia of summer sports history.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 26 July 2024
  • In many instances, those are players with a chance not merely to offer depth to keep the Sox from derailments with injuries (at least to position players) but with a chance to raise the ceiling of what the team can be.
    — Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Sep. 2023
  • Their achievements show that women are not merely breaking through barriers but are also reshaping the industry’s landscape.
    — Anushree Jain, Forbes, 27 Sep. 2024

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