Definition of ASSERTIVE (original) (raw)

Examples of assertive in a Sentence

When my mother brought my baby sister home on the train from the Chicago adoption agency, she had hired a woman from the South named Arizona, much younger than Hope, vigorous, boisterous, taller, darker, and less acclimated to the behavior expected of servants in an upscale Wasp suburb up North. She was a blithe spirit, as I remember her, assertive, gleeful, expansive, loud and goofy with me when, to tease her, I'd pull on the bow of her apron strings … —Edward Hoagland, Harper's, July 2004 Don't substitute corn syrup or molasses for cane syrup. Corn syrup is thinner, lighter and milder than cane syrup, and molasses is thicker, darker and much more assertive. —Denise Landis, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2002 One of the points I think that's important is the way in which the United States has responded to the initiatives in the African Renaissance, and a lot of the developments that we have seen, in fact, have their roots in Africa. What it means for U.S. policy is that the Africans themselves are being much more assertive than they have been in the past. —Emerge, June 1998 Daily newspaper in Chicago metro region seeks aggressive, assertive crime reporter who thrives on getting obligatory … items done fast in order to devote time to colorful stories about villains, victims and everything in between. —Editor & Publisher, 31 Oct. 1998

Their daughter is an assertive little girl. If you want people to listen to your opinions, you'll need to learn to be more assertive.

Recent Examples on the Web Rather than trying to be louder or more assertive, focus on being warmer and more personable. —William Arruda, Forbes, 4 Sep. 2024 This has been particularly true with the Muscogee Creek Nation, which has a reputation for being more assertive of tribal sovereignty than the other major tribes. —Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2024 Her remarks, during an address in Alabama, were widely seen at the time as more assertive than the president had been. —Missy Ryan, Washington Post, 30 July 2024 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as China’s increasingly assertive moves in the South China Sea and threats toward Taiwan, have in recent years soured the Washington-Beijing relationship. —Nectar Gan, CNN, 27 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for assertive

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