How to Use characterize in a Sentence

characterize

verb
  • Farms and large flat fields characterize most of the area.
  • I would characterize this as a positive change for our company.
  • How would you characterize the situation?
  • His personality is hard to characterize.
  • She had difficulty characterizing their relationship.
  • The two sides couldn't even agree on how to characterize the exchanges.
    — Fortune, 18 Mar. 2021
  • On the exterior, the house is characterized by the use of tiles on the roof.
    — Bay Area Home Report, The Mercury News, 15 May 2024
  • That would have been a fair way to characterize the Cowboys for the better part of two decades.
    — Dallas News, 9 Jan. 2023
  • The debate over how to characterize what the country’s been put through over the past three weeks will carry on for the rest of our lives.
    — Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 25 Nov. 2020
  • The spokesman could not characterize the risk to the force of leaving tens of thousands of service members exposed to the virus.
    — Abraham Mahshie, Washington Examiner, 5 Feb. 2021
  • At the time, Casey didn't characterize the move as a demotion.
    — Omari Sankofa Ii, Detroit Free Press, 2 Mar. 2022
  • There's now a frantic push to try and characterize some of these mutations in the lab.
    — Kai Kupferschmidt, Science | AAAS, 20 Dec. 2020
  • Measles is an airborne disease characterized by a high fever, a cough and a rash.
    — The Enquirer, 7 Mar. 2024
  • Braun’s road to his third opening day in the NBA has been characterized by winning.
    — Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 23 Oct. 2024
  • Events in the brain during REM have been well characterized, at least in humans.
    — Carolyn Wilke, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Sep. 2023
  • After that storm sunny skies and calm winds are likely to characterize the rest of the week.
    — Austin Turner, The Mercury News, 22 Jan. 2024
  • The disease is characterized by a distinctive rash that starts at the hairline, moving to the head and neck.
    — Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Feb. 2024
  • There are four main types of green sweat bees in Michigan and they are characterized by their color and short tongues.
    — Marina Johnson, Detroit Free Press, 4 May 2023
  • And that repellent first day characterized much of what was to come.
    — Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 15 May 2023
  • The default mode was one of the first brain networks characterized by science.
    — Nora Bradford, WIRED, 3 Mar. 2024
  • The paintings are now stashed in an enormous hangar that critics have characterized as a sort of Raiders of the Lousy Art warehouse.
    — Elisabetta Povoledo, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2023
  • The default mode was one of the first brain networks characterized by science.
    — Quanta Magazine, 5 Feb. 2024
  • James says the faces of her subjects lift off the page or canvas and steer her on how to characterize her depictions.
    — Yolanda Baruch, Forbes, 16 June 2022
  • El-Badry and co set out to characterize the nature of this companion.
    — The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 15 Nov. 2022
  • Gout Gout is a type of arthritis characterized by sudden and severe pain, redness, and swelling in the joints.
    — Lauren Panoff, Mph, Rd, Verywell Health, 4 Nov. 2024
  • White mesh and linear lines characterize those of Lil Yang.
    — Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, 22 Apr. 2021
  • On the exterior, the house is characterized by the use of tar and gravel roofing.
    — Bay Area Home Report, The Mercury News, 24 Oct. 2024
  • On the exterior, the house is characterized by the use of tar and gravel roofing.
    — Bay Area Home Report, The Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2024
  • Massively popular in 2005, the company's original model—characterized by its point-counting system and group meetings—drew in millions of members around the world.
    — Katherine Fung, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 July 2025
  • In addition to the sheer fun some women have with dousing their significant others with a garden hose, the trend has been characterized by countless disagreements in the comments section over what kind of treatment makes for a good relationship.
    — Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 July 2025

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