doctrinaire

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Despite all evidence to the contrary, Marshall still believed,” in Mr. Dikötter’s words, that the Communists “were not doctrinaire ideologists, but merely rural reformers who could help shape a democratic China.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026

"The modernism that was around before the 1980s was very grey, restrictive, utilitarian and quite doctrinaire really," Farrell said.

From BBC • Sep. 29, 2025

His harping on this point could come across as doctrinaire.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 14, 2025

I’ve just spent a week tramping across Venice, a city of more than 250 churches, and where did I encounter the most doctrinaire catechism?

From New York Times • Apr. 24, 2024

The boy and his father were not of one mind; their observations were made in the spirit of different parties: the father, I suspect, was a royalist,—the son, I am sure, was a young doctrinaire.

From Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 1 of 2) by Trollope, Frances Milton