How to Use near miss in a Sentence

near miss

noun
  • After years of near misses, the team has finally won a championship.
  • There are still lessons to be drawn from his win and his near miss.
    — Washington Examiner Staff, Washington Examiner, 5 Nov. 2020
  • There were some near misses across the board.
    — Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The players had grown from the near misses.
    — Thomas Schlachter, CNN Money, 23 May 2026
  • There were shouts and even a near miss from a water pistol.
    — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 8 Sep. 2025
  • This is one of those struggles where a near miss counts for nothing.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 17 Sep. 2021
  • The misses were just near misses.
    — Katie Woo, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2026
  • The target is small and even a near miss can have little effect.
    — David Hambling, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
  • The Kings have also had a few near misses over the past three years.
    — Jason Anderson, Sacramento Bee, 25 June 2024
  • But there's been a lot of near misses over the last several years.
    — Stephen Sorace, Fox News, 30 Jan. 2025
  • The near miss, coupled with my injury, forced me to reckon with risk.
    — Sharael Kolberg, Travel + Leisure, 4 July 2024
  • People kept reminding her of that near miss.
    — Tim Ellis, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
  • That wisdom comes from more than a decade of false starts, near misses, and genre pivots.
    — Mike Wass, Variety, 7 Feb. 2024
  • Those near misses helped extend Ole Miss drives at times.
    — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 9 Jan. 2026
  • The footage of the near miss shows how close the scene was to turning into a disaster.
    — Saajan Jogia, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Back then, there were near misses and clear red flags about the ground’s suitability.
    — Jacob Whitehead, The Athletic, 8 Aug. 2024
  • Blake, who had a near miss in his quest to crack double figures, might call it the luck of the Irish.
    — Lars Brandle, Billboard, 24 May 2023
  • After four decades of near misses, he’s learned that killing an animal isn’t the best part of a hunt.
    — Devon O’Neil, Outside, 15 Oct. 2025
  • The report of an apocalypse near miss came as a wake-up call to Reagan.
    — Evan Thomas, Washington Post, 22 July 2022
  • Despite the thrills and spills of a semi-final near miss in Mumbai.
    — Paul Newman, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2026
  • In the world of prestigious awards, some names are synonymous with near misses.
    — Brendan Rascius july 10, Miami Herald, 10 July 2025
  • One of the newer trends that has developed over the past 24 hours is the storm is a near miss to our south.
    — Steven Sosna, CBS News, 10 Feb. 2026
  • But many complex systems on the brink of failure leave clues, and near misses are flashing red lights.
    — Juliette Kayyem, The Atlantic, 23 Mar. 2026
  • His near miss stands out in British history, as does the significant loss of life.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 17 June 2022
  • The threat to planes from drones continues to increase along with the number of near misses around airports.
    — Josh Funk, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2026
  • The threat to planes from drones continues to increase along with the number of near misses around airports.
    — Josh Funk, Fortune, 14 Feb. 2026
  • The threat to planes from drones continues to increase along with the number of near misses around airports.
    — ABC News, 13 Feb. 2026
  • For an asteroid headed toward Earth, that could be enough to change a direct hit to a near miss.
    — Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 26 Sep. 2022
  • Few teams in pro sports feel the burden of past successes, and painful near misses, like these two franchises.
    — Mac Engel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Apr. 2025
  • Mickey Lotus, Pete’s son, was around for some of the near misses.
    — Steve Millar, Chicago Tribune, 14 June 2025

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