How to Use belated in a Sentence

belated

adjective
  • She received belated recognition for her scientific discovery.
  • The journey proves a belated act of self-discovery.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 17 May 2026
  • Luka Modric made a belated attempt to get back, but Rabiot had time, even on his weaker foot, to line up a finish.
    — Jonathan Wilson, SI.com, 14 Feb. 2018
  • That the White House is finally treating testing with any kind of urgency is a welcome if belated push.
    — Brian Barrett, Wired, 13 Mar. 2020
  • Its belated return on April 26 marked a nearly 12-month gap between seasons.
    — Gary Levin, USA TODAY, 11 May 2018
  • While belated, the transfer is a rare success for the commissions system at Guantánamo.
    — New York Times, 2 May 2018
  • But Adams also deserves some belated credit (and don’t be shocked when his former colleagues toss him a GM of the Year vote or two).
    — Sean McIndoe, New York Times, 2 Feb. 2026
  • Tonkin marked their first wedding anniversary in a belated Instagram post on Tuesday, May 12.
    — Ashlyn Robinette, PEOPLE, 13 May 2026
  • The closer and title track serve as a belated mission statement, at once tonally busy and capaciously arranged, as if to make the frequency spectrum itself a character in the songs.
    — Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 12 June 2026
  • The belated coming to Broadway of Kenneth Lonergan is one of the best things to happen to theater in America in the past decade.
    — Terry Teachout, WSJ, 27 June 2019
  • Use that momentum to start a belated conversation or lead a communication endeavor.
    — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 14 Apr. 2026
  • Kennard was part of group of reserves that helped the Pistons make a belated comeback against the Wizards, who used 45-point third quarter to open up a 20-point lead.
    — Dana Gauruder, Detroit Free Press, 20 Jan. 2018
  • The belated addition of the feature would be a little surprising because Apple doesn’t seem too enamored with SIM cards in the first place.
    — Sam Byford, The Verge, 29 Aug. 2018
  • Then, at the end of the episode, Slightly pulls Arthur’s body into a ventilation shaft, in what could be a belated act of regret or an attempt to preserve a Xenomorph host body before any other aliens can eat it.
    — Noel Murray, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2025
  • China, meanwhile, is living with the long shadow of its one-child policy, which was eased to a two-child rule in 2016 and then to a three-child policy in 2021 in a belated push to boost births.
    — Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Joy speaks at length about growing up in a culturally sophisticated yet oppressive family and holding her artistic temperament in check, before achieving a belated liberation.
    — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Middleton's visit to Leicester served as a belated celebration of Holi, the Hindu festival, which took place on Wednesday, March 4.
    — Emma Banks, InStyle, 5 Mar. 2026
  • Seattle receiver Golden Tate, after pushing off on the Packers’ Sam Shields (no flag was thrown, naturally), had made what seemed like a belated reach and put a single arm on the ball as Jennings fell to the ground.
    — Michael Silver, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2026
  • That’s true historically — Netflix ran a 10K on streaming before Disney could lace up its sneakers, prompting a mad belated frenzy from the Burbank firm to get its own service up and running more than a decade later, in 2019.
    — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 12 Dec. 2025

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