How to Use air quotes in a Sentence

air quotes

plural noun
  • Muessig said in the video, using his fingers to make air quotes.
    — Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021
  • The only person who gets thrown under the bus in this [makes air quotes] tell-all memoir is me.
    — Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 18 Oct. 2022
  • The quarterback used air quotes to make sure his audience knew what that meant.
    — Ann Killion, SFChronicle.com, 9 Dec. 2019
  • With that poster behind her, Ravan echoes the sentiment and some of that frustration, making air quotes with her hands to prove her point.
    — David Browne, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2021
  • Both new and past models do share the unmistakable Off-White orange pull tab and literal air quotes printed on the heel.
    — Jake Woolf, GQ, 28 Mar. 2018
  • No more air quotes this season.
    — Eddie Brown, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Feb. 2026
  • Or should audiences be reading into the suspicious air quotes around the title?
    — Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2026
  • Though the new Broadway artwork does away with them, there’s a contemptuous little pair of air quotes in the show’s name as written.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 17 Sep. 2025
  • But computers aren’t dogs, data isn’t kibble, and that previous sentence has way too many air quotes.
    — John Pavlus, Quanta Magazine, 8 July 2024
  • This punchline was so air quotes appalling that gay viewers could enjoy it without having to fret that straight viewers might get the wrong idea about us.
    — Mark Harris, New York Times, 17 Aug. 2023

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