How to Use Sisyphean in a Sentence

Sisyphean

adjective
  • But their season has been Sisyphean.
    — Andrew Knoll, Oc Register, 23 Mar. 2026
  • Sports fandom can feel Sisyphean.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 13 May 2026
  • This Sisyphean season of injuries for the Nuggets has at least one more setback in store.
    — Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Whether the creature is pecking at the ground or slumped over, unable to hold up the weight of its own body, all its gestures amount to Sisyphean false starts.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Read more from Rose on the latest, and revisit her 2024 story for a rundown of the whole Sisyphean saga.
    — Theresa Gaffney, STAT, 2 June 2026
  • After years of crawling toward success at a Sisyphean pace, Jake’s business is finally starting to find success.
    — Andy Andersen, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2025
  • No state excels at this Sisyphean creation of artificial beaches like Florida.
    — Denise Hruby, Miami Herald, 15 Dec. 2025
  • Joe Piechura, Fort Lauderdale A never-ending challenge Beach cleanups are a Sisyphean task.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 31 Jan. 2026
  • Rabbi Capoeira follows Miki Hayat’s five-year Sisyphean journey to connect spirit and body, bridging fears and dreams.
    — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Ray struggles to hide his drink, to get a drink, to get away on his own and pursue his Sisyphean labors of hammering a bucket of baseballs off a tee and then wandering through the field to collect them and start again.
    — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 12 June 2026
  • The pursuit of beauty is a Sisyphean one, as Deborah Vance—the character that earned Smart her Emmy nomination—will be the first to tell you.
    — Sam Reed, Glamour, 12 Sep. 2025
  • The pivot could have been toward Morant or some other talent that some/all in that brain trust consortium identified as a piece to get the roster over the top, instead the ongoing Sisyphean task of pushing the boulder up the play-in mountain.
    — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 7 Feb. 2026
  • Given the widespread lack of food in Gaza, treating even a single child can at times feel Sisyphean, said Jamil Suleiman, the director of al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital.
    — Pablo Robles, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2025
  • Grindr’s embrace of artificial intelligence comes amid growing conversation about the frustrating, almost Sisyphean experience of using the landmark app.
    — Mathew Rodriguez, Them., 17 Dec. 2025
  • According to the literature, the frock was a huge job for Schiaparelli’s embroiderers, who took a Sisyphean 22,000 hours to embroider the thing, give or take.
    — Guy Martin, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
  • Bowling at run-hungry batters on largely unforgiving pitches in vast, cacophonous stadiums with huge outfields in front of a partisan and at times baying crowd — plenty of English bowlers have found bowling in Australia akin to a Sisyphean task.
    — James Wallace, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2025
  • But there is no description that captures the many sides of the rabbi’s soul, and so Koestenbaum offers a gloriously Sisyphean attempt, a measure of respect for the human in all its biological imperatives and psychological complexity.
    — Literary Hub, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Ritchie then reminded the committee that members of the grunge band Pearl Jam sat before Congress 30 years ago in their Sisyphean battle against Ticketmaster and that in 2009, Congress was told under oath that merging Live Nation and Ticketmaster would benefit artists and fans.
    — Kevin Dolak, HollywoodReporter, 28 Jan. 2026

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