How to Use unnecessarily in a Sentence

unnecessarily

adverb
  • The suit said the teen's life was unnecessarily cut short.
    — NBC News, 25 Apr. 2022
  • That seemed unnecessarily strict to me, given the fact that the flight was less than half-full.
    — David Hudnall, Kansas City Star, 31 Jan. 2025
  • Whether Williams made the game unnecessarily difficult or saved the night was in the eye of the beholder.
    — Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2022
  • This keeps them off of the floor and from getting unnecessarily scratched.
    — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 July 2022
  • The film’s plot is an unnecessarily loose bag of bones, some of them inspired, some less so.
    — Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 5 Sep. 2024
  • Still, Grier feels the rebuild in a good spot, and does not want to unnecessarily rush things.
    — Curtis Pashelka, The Mercury News, 1 Feb. 2025
  • That meant stale lollipops for the kids and unnecessarily long lines for adults.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Aug. 2021
  • The alert put many on their toes, but unnecessarily so.
    — Erin B. Logan, baltimoresun.com, 30 July 2019
  • The saga is, from head to toe, deeply strange and oh so unnecessarily dramatic.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 9 Aug. 2019
  • Both restaurants and homes can (and should!) apply the method to keep kitchens neat and prevent food from unnecessarily going to waste.
    — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 22 Oct. 2024
  • This could cause the heater to cycle on and off unnecessarily, leading to a waste of energy.
    — Timothy Dale, Better Homes & Gardens, 19 Feb. 2025
  • To avoid throwing away food unnecessarily, make sure to avoid this scenario in the future.
    — Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 7 Dec. 2024
  • Some people unnecessarily cut out whole food groups to achieve specific sizes or extreme weight loss goals, but this can take a toll on the body, Gans said.
    — Maggie O'Neill, Verywell Health, 1 Dec. 2023
  • Five years after his death, those closest to him are left with grief and the bitter taste of a life sacrificed unnecessarily.
    — John Leland, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2023
  • Some people unnecessarily cut out whole food groups to achieve specific sizes or extreme weight loss goals, but this can take a toll on the body, Gans said.
    — Maggie O'Neill, Verywell Health, 22 Oct. 2024
  • Time to pull out all the unnecessarily uncomfortable clothes that have been hiding in the back of the closet just waiting to see sunlight again.
    — Abigail Rosenthal, Chron, 23 Mar. 2021
  • The text raised her blood pressure and heart rate unnecessarily.
    — Byron McCauley, The Enquirer, 11 Aug. 2020
  • At the same time, Fed officials do not want to brake too hard, which could unnecessarily cause a recession.
    — Jeanna Smialek, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2023
  • On one hand, breasts have given us so much, like scoop neck tops and those unnecessarily erotic Carl’s Jr. commercials from the mid-aughts.
    — New York Times, 6 July 2022
  • The goal is to ensure elections officials don’t close polling places unnecessarily or are wary of the new, third-party help.
    — Margaret Newkirk, Bloomberg.com, 1 Sep. 2020
  • That marked the end of an unnecessarily steep sell-off in response to its late August earnings report.
    — Zev Fima, CNBC, 21 Nov. 2024
  • We’ve paid for this failing in the hundreds of thousands who have died unnecessarily.
    — William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 8 Apr. 2021
  • Residents were urged to stay indoors and not to travel unnecessarily during the hottest times of day.
    — Alan Taylor, The Atlantic, 19 July 2022
  • But the timing and unfolding of this process was bizarre and unnecessarily egregious for UConn.
    — Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 8 June 2024
  • This move is meant to crack down on apps that request the permission unnecessarily.
    — Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 21 Feb. 2020
  • While each route needs convenient stops, too many can unnecessarily slow the trip.
    — Tom Condon, Hartford Courant, 17 July 2022
  • Spending unnecessarily or for the wrong reason should be dealt with quickly in order to ease stress.
    — Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 12 June 2019
  • Put a finger down if you’ve been followed in a store unnecessarily.
    — Abby Gardner, Glamour, 3 June 2020
  • And to cap it off, we're treated to an unnecessarily graphic flashback of Cal's murder.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 4 Mar. 2025
  • Other proposals would require the Treasury to gamble with the state’s investment portfolios, unnecessarily increasing risk in the long term.
    — Dave Young, The Denver Post, 8 Mar. 2025

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