frankness

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.

“Wake me up in a hundred years, ask me what is happening in Russia,” mused Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, a 19th-century satirist, “and I’ll tell you with my usual frankness: We steal, we drink, we make war.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026

Portraits come in many incarnations—the rigorous realism of Holbein, the rococo elegance of Gainsborough, the harsh frankness of Lucian Freud, to name just a few.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025

It was that honesty and frankness, combined with his biting touch, that made Stephen Colbert such a TV icon.

From Slate • Jul. 18, 2025

Some in government admit that they expected a positive response to Reeves's radical frankness about what the government could and could not afford to do.

From BBC • Jun. 27, 2025

The ease of his manner freed me from painful restraint: the friendly frankness, as correct as cordial, with which he treated me, drew me to him.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë