How to Use spite in a Sentence

spite

1 of 2 noun
  • He is jealous and full of spite.
  • Our hearts can remain soft in spite of it all.
    — Steph Koyfman, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Not in spite of the outfit—but because of it.
    — Junnelle Hogen, Outside, 19 Oct. 2025
  • Hunger happens here often times in spite of a lot of hard work.
    — Lee Cowan, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Yet in spite of it all, the series works more often than not.
    — Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 June 2023
  • Anya and her friends looked impressed in spite of themselves.
    — Nell Freudenberger, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
  • More than this, or in spite of this, Tim was clever and silly.
    — Cassandra Neyenesch, New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2026
  • The old guy impressed the young guy, in spite of the rocky landing.
    — Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Jan. 2024
  • And perhaps that is because of the strikes, rather than in spite of them.
    — WIRED, 28 July 2023
  • But in spite of that, the local rodents still like to hang out at our place.
    — Inga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Yet the Alley persists in spite of all this.
    — Lilliam Rivera, Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2026
  • In spite of its size, the Ace aisles are jammed with merchandise.
    — Greg Petro, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
  • And the Nuggets, in spite of themselves, might be better off.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 8 Apr. 2026
  • In spite of itself, the film comes very close to saying something true.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 24 Apr. 2026
  • In spite of the mishap, Oliver still found joy in her wedding day.
    — Madison E. Goldberg, PEOPLE, 1 Dec. 2025
  • But spreadsheets can’t measure spite.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 26 June 2026
  • And in spite of his health issues, his draft stock hasn’t really changed.
    — Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 21 Dec. 2025
  • The group’s runners show up in spite of having stressful jobs or a long work day.
    — Diosa Femme, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2023
  • In spite of the tricky footing, the Mafate 5 managed just fine.
    — Will Porter, Outside, 13 Sep. 2025
  • There are spite houses outside of the US, too.
    — Lilit Marcus, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2025
  • In spite of the limited Wi-Fi, guests here will not be bored.
    — Cu Fleshman, Travel + Leisure, 7 Apr. 2026
  • As if out of spite, Dido became the most normal pop star in the world.
    — Shaad D’souza, Pitchfork, 19 Apr. 2026
  • Just that in spite of everything, that everything was gonna be okay.
    — David Chiu, PEOPLE, 17 Jan. 2026
  • The ball got away from Witt at short in spite of his best efforts to keep it on the infield.
    — Kansas City Star, 27 June 2026
  • However, Jomha felt the event would thrive in spite of the outrage.
    — Daysia Tolentino, NBC News, 11 Apr. 2023
  • This development came in spite of the fact the school had made trips to the Div.
    — Brendan Connelly, Boston Herald, 5 Sep. 2025
  • In spite of this, the rig never showed any signs of distress due to the subpar weather.
    — Jonathon Ramsey, Car and Driver, 28 May 2023
  • The housing project has moved ahead in spite of the lawsuit, Jackson said.
    — Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun, 10 July 2023
  • In spite of the athletic feat, you’re supposed to look very poised and relaxed.
    — Sophia Scorziello, Variety, 25 May 2023
  • For Seyfried, in spite of her huge career, home life remains paramount.
    — Claire Messud, Vogue, 8 Jan. 2026

spite

2 of 2 verb
  • He only did it to spite me.
  • Trump is cutting off his nose to spite his face with these attacks.
    — Chris Cillizza, CNN, 10 Oct. 2017
  • That or the old saying about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 14 May 2021
  • All this would cost $750m—a steep price just to spite a neighbour.
    — The Economist, 17 May 2018
  • In the face of adversity, don’t cut your nose off to spite your face.
    — Ellevate, Forbes, 24 May 2021
  • This isn't the first time Barkley has worn a team's jersey to spite someone.
    — Alysha Tsuji, USA TODAY, 28 Dec. 2017
  • He is being set up to fail by the team’s new owner to spite her oligarch ex-husband.
    — John Avlon, CNN, 22 July 2021
  • Some people lock lips just to spite their fellow contestants.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 16 Apr. 2020
  • But, long term, Fisher's epic takedown might equate to cutting off his nose to spite his face.
    — Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAY, 25 May 2022
  • Only conference in America who would cut their noses off to spite their face.
    — Hunter Cooke, ajc, 14 Nov. 2017
  • The team’s new owner, who is recently divorced, wants the team to fail to spite her former husband.
    — Joseph Folkman, Forbes, 5 Oct. 2021
  • But this would be the equivalent of the GOP cutting off its nose to spite its face.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 29 July 2022
  • Ruiz sparked debates about body shape and convention, winning for the doughy among us to spite the sculpted and chiseled.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Apr. 2021
  • And nearly nobody would accept an outcome like killing a baby to spite the other party.
    — The Foretold Team, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2023
  • But the Knicks’ 3-point sharpshooter is petty enough to get a tattoo on his leg to spite his brother.
    — Chris Branch, New York Times, 12 May 2026
  • Is Jim Dolan seriously thinking about cutting off his nose to spite his face?
    — Mike Ozanian, Forbes, 27 Jan. 2023
  • However, this would involve America cutting off its nose to spite its face.
    — Henry Farrell, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2018
  • The Falcons have reason to want to spite Watson, though perhaps not enough talent.
    — Jori Epstein, USA TODAY, 13 May 2022
  • This is, after all, the state that has refused to expand Medicaid out of stubbornness and spite.
    — Kyle Whitmire, al, 5 Feb. 2021
  • Grief, pride, and spite run together as Durk addresses his enemies while mourning the dead.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 14 Mar. 2022
  • As with so many Fox projects, there’s the sense that the folks in charge just want it in their rearview mirror and don’t care if thy cut off their nose to spite their mouse-eared face.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 4 Aug. 2022
  • The governor of New Hampshire appears determined to cut off his constituents’ noses to spite their faces.
    — Yvonne Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 11 Jan. 2020
  • Sure, there are the meme stocks that retail investors have banded together to rescue from the stock bargain rack to spite the hedge funds that have written off and shorted them.
    — Victoria Rochard, Forbes, 4 July 2021
  • The polar regions don’t freeze hard every winter just to spite British explorers and ruin their ambitions.
    — Eva Holland, Outside Online, 22 Mar. 2018
  • However, at the end of the day, Cleveland will soon be noted as a small NBA city that cut off its nose to spite its face.
    — Phillip Morris, cleveland.com, 30 Aug. 2017
  • However, at the end of the day, Cleveland will soon be noted as a small NBA city that cut off its nose to spite its face.
    — Phillip Morris, cleveland.com, 8 Sep. 2017
  • The second animal behavior –– spite –– continues to be difficult to make sense of.
    — Tim Brinkhof, Discover Magazine, 9 Mar. 2021
  • This move by Republicans in Georgia is like castrating oneself to spite an ex-girlfriend.
    — Jason Johnson, The Root, 2 Mar. 2018
  • First, the roommate shut off the cooking gas to spite his girlfriend, who also lived there, then the internet went out, at which point turnover in the other two bedrooms became brisk.
    — Kim Velsey, New York Times, 28 July 2017
  • In fact, the attacker will take it one step further, and join fierce rivals Barcelona instead - simply to spite Los Blancos.
    — SI.com, 12 June 2018

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