How to Use one-note in a Sentence

one-note

adjective
Definition of one-notenext
  • Which isn’t to say that his style is one-note – it’s never been.
    — Julian Randall, Essence, 24 May 2024
  • The less said about Kraven's snarling, one-note performance, the better.
    — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 17 Oct. 2023
  • As such, the role could have easily been reduced to a bit part or a one-note villain.
    — TIME, 13 Oct. 2023
  • And although one of Patrick’s gifts to us is her honesty, at times the book felt repetitive and too one-note.
    — Steven Petrow, Washington Post, 14 May 2023
  • Slow, ballad-y verses that build to an epic one-note melody chorus.
    — Eli Miller, Vulture, 16 June 2023
  • Wilson is a skilled actor who doesn’t play a one-note foil for Momoa’s antics.
    — Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2023
  • Fabian is mostly a one-note character, and that’s the note—peeved outrage.
    — Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 8 Feb. 2024
  • Audiences could safely assume the movies’ one-note joke — a children’s toy that swears like a grown-up! — had run its course.
    — Alison Herman, Variety, 11 Jan. 2024
  • The actress indeed does a lot with a role that could easily be one-note, stealing nearly every scene in the process.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Nov. 2023
  • Lively’s charm can only carry Lily so far before the character starts to feel too one-note.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Aug. 2024
  • His keyboard player Kenny, king of the one-note solo, is holding down that B-flat organ key while waiting for the changes to come around again and catch up to his note.
    — Bart Bull, SPIN, 20 Feb. 2023
  • For all that, his Arthur remains a lowly outsider, with a downcast gaze, a peevish temper, and a deep well of melancholy that never feels one-note.
    — Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2024
  • In what at first feels like a one-note role, Maupas subtly finds the depths of hope beneath Severino’s judgmental surface.
    — Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Aug. 2023
  • The system doesn’t typify one-note characters, just as real life shouldn’t.
    — WIRED, 26 July 2023
  • Russia is pretty much a one-note economy: Fossil fuel exports pay the bills.
    — David Cay Johnston, The New Republic, 30 Mar. 2023
  • A little of this goes a very long way, especially when the Bandits themselves are relatively one-note.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 23 July 2024
  • For all the wit and care of the performances, Malcolm and JB register as one-note ciphers because the adaptation cuts them down to little more than plot functionaries.
    — David Benedict, Variety, 5 Apr. 2023
  • Beethoven’s Fifth, ending Saturday’s program, appeared to be headed the same direction after a one-note first movement.
    — Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 14 July 2024
  • Designers never walk into a single showroom or store and outfit an entire room; that would result in an overly trendy, one-note design.
    — Ryan Conner, Dallas News, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Lynch is nuanced enough to make Frank a memorably self-loathing villain instead of a one-note stooge, which ultimately makes the show more rewarding as a drama than as comedy.
    — Chris Klimek, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2024
  • The later films in the original Apes series struggle with creating a compelling human element, and the humans in Battle are painfully one-note.
    — Barry Levitt, Vulture, 10 May 2024
  • The aspects that his acolytes push into one-note histrionics or weirder-than-thou eccentricity are all here, but in the right proportions, with dancers who have been trained and coached to maintain the right frequencies.
    — Brian Seibert, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2023
  • But the book operates as a reminder — never dull, often stinging — of what is lost when nuanced argument is supplanted by one-note bullhorns.
    — David Amsden, Los Angeles Times, 2 Jan. 2024
  • But Hacks brings depth to a character who could otherwise be one-note — and Olson points to DJ’s pregnancy as a new obstacle in her fractured relationship with her mom.
    — Tyler Coates, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 June 2024
  • There was nothing nice to say about the dry pork chop, which couldn’t be salvaged even after a dip in the accompanying honey and roasted garlic sauce, or a one-note side dish of creamed spinach doing a great imitation of glue.
    — Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 29 Sep. 2023
  • Holga’s comments begin to sound one-note, and patience wears thin with Simon’s diffidence and Doric’s indifference.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Balanchine’s choreography was suddenly a one-note affair; this was a terrible way to show off his legacy.
    — Gia Kourlas, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2023
  • With the female characters sidelined to one-note cheerleaders, Clooney puts his focus on the fantastic production design.
    — Amy Nicholson, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2023
  • One of the biggest weaknesses of Lucas’s partnership with fellow comedian Noel Fielding was their one-note double act.
    — James Hansen, Bon Appétit, 28 Sep. 2023
  • Some characters offer poetic asides, but these become part of a one-note exploration of national and cultural mood.
    — Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 13 Sep. 2024

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