How to Use provocative in a Sentence
provocative
adjective
- It was one of his more provocative suggestions.
- She was wearing a very provocative outfit.
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Rude wanted to show me the most provocative street art in the city.
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Tony Perrottet,
Travel + Leisure,
11 June 2023
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The hotel's buzz is due to its provocative mix of old and new.
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Tony Perrottet,
Travel + Leisure,
14 Dec. 2024
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Will Vladimir Putin view that as provocative, as more of a threat?
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CBS News,
3 July 2022
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Cloud was beloved by fans of the provocative teen drama.
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Lisa Respers France,
CNN,
1 Aug. 2023
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And that makes this provocative but uneasy film leave a sour taste in the mouth.
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David Rooney,
The Hollywood Reporter,
2 Sep. 2023
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Warts and all, this is a lovely, deep, provocative book.
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Jay Nordlinger,
National Review,
7 June 2023
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Humor in the film is provocative and is there to break concepts.
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Emiliano Granada,
Variety,
28 Mar. 2022
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The discussions about a threat of war is provocative in and of itself.
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Conor Finnegan,
ABC News,
31 Jan. 2022
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The provocative story behind the cover is much the same.
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Barbara Vandenburgh,
USA TODAY,
1 Feb. 2022
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Some of Cracknell’s choices, in fact, make the work less provocative.
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Zachary Woolfe,
New York Times,
1 Jan. 2024
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The artist’s small paintings are as dense and provocative as his large ones — tiny worlds full of ideograms, like tarot cards.
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Cate McQuaid,
BostonGlobe.com,
9 May 2023
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All of the above might have been very provocative in a film focused solely on Lewis’ gospel work.
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John Defore,
The Hollywood Reporter,
22 May 2022
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Her books on Alaska ranged from the practical to the provocative.
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Chris Bieri,
Anchorage Daily News,
28 July 2022
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Cassie’s arc was provocative, but Sweeney found bringing the story to life thrilling.
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Janelle Okwodu,
Vogue,
21 Apr. 2022
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The play’s at the Jermyn Street Theater, a tiny place that always has something provocative.
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Brian T. Allen,
National Review,
12 Feb. 2022
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But even the provocative purveyor of $800 T-shirts isn’t immune to the cowboy myth.
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Naomi Rougeau,
Robb Report,
3 Oct. 2023
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This fragrance is easily the most provocative cologne on the list.
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Grooming Playbook,
The Salt Lake Tribune,
26 May 2022
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Maybe there just isn’t a bigger and more provocative story here.
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Daniel Fienberg,
The Hollywood Reporter,
9 June 2022
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The whole point of these provocative campaigns is to show that fashion doesn’t have to be so serious.
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Kerane Marcellus,
Essence,
22 Sep. 2023
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The authors of the provocative study make an unfortunate but true point.
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Marshall Shepherd,
Forbes,
11 Feb. 2024
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In both cases, the hope is to engage and test them, so that something new, and provocative, results.
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Bill Fischer,
Forbes,
20 Apr. 2023
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The provocative comments, experts said, were part of a pattern.
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Genevieve Glatsky,
New York Times,
10 Apr. 2024
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Nudes are one of the oldest and most stubbornly provocative tropes in Western art.
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Julia Halperin,
New York Times,
3 Apr. 2024
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The initial paper wasn’t written to be provocative, Sharkey said.
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Brooke Jarvis,
WIRED,
10 Nov. 2022
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The sight of the tuxedo-wearing star on screen in Morocco in 1930 was not only provocative.
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Laird Borrelli-Persson,
Vogue,
25 Mar. 2022
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The lyrics were also, notably, a little provocative, too.
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Ilana Kaplan,
Peoplemag,
27 July 2023
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Basler is a provocative pundit and Doppelpass is always a forum for strident views, but even in the local media Sahin has found support hard to come by.
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Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
The Athletic,
21 Jan. 2025
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Disputes are not only normal but necessary — a notion the always provocative Jimpa takes impish delight in testing.
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Peter Debruge,
Variety,
23 Jan. 2025
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'provocative.' 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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