How to Use filibuster in a Sentence

filibuster

1 of 2 noun
  • They engaged in a filibuster that lasted for over a week.
  • That is the wrong reason to do away with a filibuster.
    — Isabella Murray, ABC News, 9 Nov. 2025
  • Due to the nature of the bill, her speech was not a filibuster.
    — Jimmy Lovrien, Twin Cities, 16 Apr. 2026
  • The filibuster forces the two sides to talk to each other.
    — Tony Vanderhoef, Sun Sentinel, 2 Apr. 2026
  • The filibuster has long been utilized by both sides.
    — Callum Sutherland, Time, 3 Nov. 2025
  • And there also aren’t the votes to change the filibuster.
    — Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 26 Feb. 2026
  • The filibuster is a fact of life in the Senate.
    — U T Editorial Board, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Apr. 2026
  • That was enough to avert a filibuster and should clear its way for final passage.
    — Staff Writer follow, Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2022
  • But the motion failed to reach the 60-vote filibuster, and the bill has stalled.
    — Rachel Schilke, The Washington Examiner, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Removing the filibuster is a bad idea.
    — Matt Fleming, Oc Register, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Most agree the filibuster isn’t going anywhere.
    — Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Both measures failed to overcome a filibuster in the state Senates.
    — Tori Otten, The New Republic, 28 Apr. 2023
  • The filibuster is the only thing forcing both sides to compromise.
    — Khaleda Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Oct. 2025
  • What almost nobody mentions in these fights is that the filibuster was never designed at all.
    — Tony Vanderhoef, Sun Sentinel, 2 Apr. 2026
  • The senators who kill the filibuster today will spend years wishing someone had saved it.
    — Tony Vanderhoef, Sun Sentinel, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Trump has told Thune several times to eliminate the filibuster to pass the bill.
    — Claire Carter, The Washington Examiner, 24 June 2026
  • Some left-wing groups have backed off their insistence on filibuster elimination, at least for now.
    — W. James Antle Iii, The Washington Examiner, 20 Mar. 2026
  • After three attempts, the senators' filibuster failed to block the bill from passing.
    — Nadine El-Bawab, ABC News, 24 May 2023
  • Thune has been encouraged to change Senate rules to bypass the filibuster.
    — Britta Miller, The Washington Examiner, 26 June 2026
  • Ten Republicans would have to support it to avoid a filibuster.
    — Laura Hancock, cleveland, 14 Sep. 2022
  • John Cornyn is a coward who has refused to support abolishing the filibuster to pass this bill.
    — Jack Fink, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2026
  • John Cornyn is a coward who has refused to support abolishing the filibuster to pass this bill.
    — Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5 Mar. 2026
  • Many of them are liberals who have been on record criticizing both shutdowns and the filibuster rule.
    — W. James Antle Iii, The Washington Examiner, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Ten Republicans will need to support the bill in order to stave off a filibuster.
    — Allison Hope, CNN, 21 July 2022
  • But the filibuster was being used constantly.
    — David Remnick, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Trump wants to ditch the filibuster altogether.
    — Phillip M. Bailey, USA Today, 31 Oct. 2025
  • Fearing what Democrats will do without the filibuster is the strategy of a losing team.
    — Jay Reddick, The Orlando Sentinel, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Again, not a call to nuke the filibuster exactly, but a demand for legislative action.
    — W. James Antle Iii, The Washington Examiner, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Spending measures need at least 60 votes to avert the Senate filibuster.
    — Garrett Downs, CNBC, 29 Jan. 2026
  • But the speech during the filibuster must be connected to the bill the legislature is trying to pass.
    — Misty Severi, Washington Examiner, 11 May 2023

filibuster

2 of 2 verb
  • Senators raise their hand to filibuster and go back to their states to raise more money.
    — Fortune, 18 Jan. 2022
  • That’s why my own support for the right to filibuster, like Biden’s, has weakened.
    — Clarence Page, chicagotribune.com, 26 Mar. 2021
  • Its rules, written for a two-party system, allow one deputy to filibuster a law.
    — The Economist, 1 Feb. 2018
  • But in the real world, oration is to filibuster as essay writing is to texting.
    — Gail Collins New York Times, Star Tribune, 11 Mar. 2021
  • But Senate Democrats can — and will — filibuster wall funding.
    — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, 24 Aug. 2017
  • Manchin has expressed support to do away with one of the opportunities to filibuster a bill, but not all of them.
    — Jennifer Haberkorn Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2022
  • Had the motion to end debate failed, then opponents could have attempted to filibuster the bill to death.
    — Pamela Wood, baltimoresun.com, 19 June 2018
  • Nick Saban has used a bully pulpit, filibustered and knows the power of polls.
    — Rainer Sabin, AL.com, 6 Jan. 2018
  • Democrats vowed to block his appointment, though a change to the rules means that Supreme Court picks can no longer be filibustered.
    — The Economist, 12 July 2018
  • The right to filibuster is a simple rule that could be changed in minutes by a majority vote of the Senate.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Jan. 2022
  • If necessary, pro-life senators must filibuster any bill that kills the Hyde amendment.
    — The Editors, National Review, 2 June 2021
  • Democrats could try to filibuster any change, but the filibuster could itself be nixed by a simple majority.
    — The Economist, 23 Oct. 2019
  • Most bills can be filibustered in the Senate and require a 60-vote threshold.
    — Kate Davidson, WSJ, 18 July 2017
  • But his party did not filibuster a vote and Republicans were able to pass a debt limit increase along party lines.
    — New York Times, 26 Sep. 2021
  • The relatively large size of the group suggests the deal can survive attempts from far-right and far-left senators to filibuster it.
    — Ledyard King, USA TODAY, 24 June 2021
  • This prompted lawmakers to filibuster even more, since all a senator had to do then was make his or her intent to block a bill known to leadership.
    — Libby Cathey, ABC News, 11 Jan. 2022
  • For the first time, the Senate filibustered a secretary of defense, and Reid had had enough.
    — Jon Ralston, The Atlantic, 18 Jan. 2026
  • If Republicans filibuster the Asian hate crimes bill, Democrats would likely use it to build their case.
    — Jennifer Haberkorn, Los Angeles Times, 13 Apr. 2021
  • Pro-Brexit peers in the Lords are threatening to try to stop it by filibustering until time runs out.
    — Danica Kirka, BostonGlobe.com, 4 Sep. 2019
  • Democrats only have 50 votes – not enough to stop debate and force a vote if Republicans decide to filibuster.
    — Mabinty Quarshie, USA TODAY, 27 Jan. 2021
  • Psaki also pushed back on the suggestion that the president's comments showed a new openness to filibuster reform.
    — Libby Cathey, ABC News, 2 June 2021
  • That bill died after Senate Republicans threatened to filibuster and run out the clock.
    — Russell Blair, courant.com, 7 June 2019
  • In all, just 35 Senate Republicans were able to filibuster the bill.
    — Andrew Solender, Forbes, 2 June 2021
  • Republicans know that Democrats will filibuster.
    — Marc Novicoff, The Atlantic, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Democrats, it must be noted, did not filibuster and the hike of the artificial limit cleared with a 52-48 margin.
    — Philip Elliott, Time, 7 Oct. 2021
  • Democrats lacked the votes to filibuster, and their grilling of Gorsuch wasn’t so much an indictment of his credentials as a spasm against the skulduggery that got him there.
    — Simon Van Zuylen-Wood, Daily Intelligencer, 28 May 2018
  • Should filibuster rules remain intact, Democrats may have to resort to more creative tactics to advance parts of Biden’s agenda.
    — Rey Mashayekhi, Fortune, 22 Jan. 2021
  • The women filibustered, taking the gifts to the podium on the Senate floor to declare themselves even more firmly in resistance.
    — Kate Zernike, New York Times, 7 May 2023
  • Negandhi admittedly filibustered a news conference so Vitale would have less time to speak and more strength for later.
    — Matt Baker, New York Times, 4 May 2026
  • While the bill passed the House in 1922, Southern senators filibustered it.
    — Adeola Adeosun, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'filibuster.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: