How to Use austere in a Sentence

austere

adjective
  • They lived an austere life in the country.
  • He was known for his austere style of writing.
  • They choose austere furnishings for the office.
  • In this austere, arid world, brown was the coin of the realm.
    David Kelly, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2019
  • The shrines themselves are austere and hard to see from the pathways.
    The Washington Post, The Denver Post, 23 Feb. 2017
  • The show itself maintained the austere tone of the Mueller report.
    Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker, 1 July 2019
  • The rest of his crew lived aboveground, in austere barracks.
    Ed Caesar, The New Yorker, 23 Jan. 2021
  • The store, the brand’s first outside Japan, is calm and austere.
    New York Times, 22 Apr. 2021
  • The interior of the house reveals the hallmarks of his own austere style.
    Sarah Medford, WSJ, 9 Mar. 2022
  • The space is austere and solemn, with beige walls and icy climate control.
    David Maurice Smith, Smithsonian, 23 Aug. 2019
  • Withers’s sound reaches back to the austere roots of the blues and country music.
    Reginald Dwayne Betts Kiese Makeba Laymon Carina Del Valle Schorske Dessa Irina Aleksander Sam Dolnick Mark Binelli Maggie Jones Rob Hoerburger Jamie Lauren Keiles Devin Gordon Jazmine Hughes Jenna Wortham Jade Chang Taffy Brodesser-Akner Kaitlyn Greenidge Rowan Ricardo Phillips Michael Paterniti Wesley Morris Ismail Muhammad Anthony Giardina, New York Times, 23 Dec. 2020
  • If there is one way to avoid a dining room that is cold and austere, get some cool old knick knacks.
    Leilani Marie Labong, SFChronicle.com, 13 Mar. 2020
  • The food is beautiful and simple, the rooms are quiet and austere.
    Marshall Heyman, WSJ, 26 Apr. 2018
  • The Venetian blinds on the windows also felt austere to them.
    Julia Zaltzman, Robb Report, 7 Apr. 2023
  • In the age-old battle between the austere and the lavish, sometimes more is just more.
    Sadie Stein, ELLE Decor, 23 May 2018
  • The sauce has an austere beefiness to it, with a sharp bitter bite and plenty of chile heat.
    Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 20 Nov. 2023
  • The walls are otherwise bare, and the color scheme is austere — with the exception of the bright teal seats.
    Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 Jan. 2018
  • Compared with the lively makeshift atelier upstairs, the space was hushed and austere.
    Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2023
  • Above, a small murder of austere crows clings to her chandelier.
    Ruby King, WSJ, 14 Oct. 2021
  • The verdict: The Jiffy brownie mix was, in a word, austere.
    Sam Stone, Bon Appétit, 8 Mar. 2023
  • What other state has a landscape more austere than Maine?
    Nina MacLaughlin, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Aug. 2019
  • This marabou clutch, in the color of a creamsicle, demands a good time when paired with austere black.
    Rebecca Ramsey, The Cut, 11 Jan. 2018
  • Looking at this room of Matisses, this is one of the more austere ones.
    New York Times, 17 June 2019
  • As should this unique red blend and a classic, austere rosé of pinot noir from the Finger Lakes.
    Washington Post, 21 May 2021
  • There is something enchanting in a vision of life so austere.
    Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 24 Oct. 2017
  • This in a country that was founded on an austere form of Islam and has been defined by it for decades.
    Donna Abu-Nasr, Bloomberg.com, 25 Oct. 2017
  • If all of that sounds like a drag, obligatory and austere, don’t worry.
    Christina Tkacik, baltimoresun.com, 4 Dec. 2019
  • His prose was now rich but austere, shorn of most punctuation.
    Dwight Garner, New York Times, 13 June 2023
  • The sisters aren’t new by any account to the austere world of classical music recordings.
    Matthew Vann, NBC News, 23 Dec. 2017
  • The views were constant: austere vistas of concrete blocks, sometimes snaked with fog.
    Phoebe Chen, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2023

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