How to Use deterrent in a Sentence
deterrent
adjective-
The pain of it should be deterrent enough to never make the mistake twice.
—Lydia Lohrer, Detroit Free Press, 30 Sep. 2017
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The goal is to send a deterrent message: Don’t even try this, don’t even leave.
—Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2019
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The deterrent effect of this penalty will be close to nil.
—Michael Hiltzik, latimes.com, 26 Jan. 2018
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The only real question is how big this deterrent effect will be.
—Tom Spiggle, Forbes, 15 June 2022
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Rhoades said sworn police officers have a deterrent effect on crime — for instance, to keep watch when gang members come in the ER.
—jsonline.com, 15 Dec. 2020
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Once a sizeable segment of any species realizes the lack of actual harm, its deterrent effect may wane.
—Anthony Trotter, ABC News, 31 Oct. 2023
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State Department officials said the threat of sanctions had been deterrent enough.
—Associated Press, Houston Chronicle, 29 Jan. 2018
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And there have been reports that the United States and the world’s other nuclear powers are dusting off Cold War deterrent protocols.
—Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2017
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Experts said those decisions, plus the deterrent effect of the aggressive security response, may be enough to avoid a repeat of the chaos at the U.S. Capitol.
—Washington Post, 16 Jan. 2021
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The rapprochement came at a crucial time when the U.S. needed to build a deterrent presence amid growing security threats in the region, Romualdez said.
—Jim Gomez, ajc, 20 Nov. 2022
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The threat of an explanation may be deterrent enough: this one goes on for two more excruciating paragraphs, and by the end her son seems thoroughly baffled.
—Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023
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Among the many, many issues our forebears didn’t worry about were the deterrent effects of capital punishment and the ideal attributes of a firefighter.
—Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2017
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Cases like Chauvin’s could also have a deterrent effect, some experts said.
—Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2021
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And when perpetrators walk free, the deterrent effect of the justice system is undermined by a growing awareness that crimes are likely to go unpunished.
—James Cross, National Review, 27 July 2021
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This, the paper’s authors suggest, is because any deterrent effect is outweighed by the effects on misdemeanants’ labor-market prospects.
—Charles Fain Lehman, National Review, 18 Apr. 2021
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Pitcavage warned that any deterrent effect in the arrests of Capitol attackers will have to be bolstered by follow-through prosecution.
—cleveland, 21 Feb. 2021
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Singapore authorities say there is a deterrent effect of the death penalty, citing studies that traffickers carry amounts below the threshold that would bring a death penalty.
—Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 27 July 2023
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People who participated in the Capitol attacks were identified and arrested, and that can have a deterrent effect.
—Amy Cooter, The Conversation, 15 June 2023
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The $700 billion figure is on the higher end of public estimates of what is plausible, and those larger estimates assume sustained efforts and a deterrent effect of tougher enforcement.
—Richard Rubin, WSJ, 27 Apr. 2021
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Parity may play a political role by making arms control agreements appear fair or implying the adequacy of a state’s forces, but there is no strategic or deterrent logic to it.
—Charles L. Glaser, Foreign Affairs, 5 Oct. 2023
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Maguire also argued that the deterrent effect of a traffic stop by an officer, and the discretion of an officer in issuing a citation or a warning, are more effective methods of battling the problem.
—Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 26 Apr. 2017
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However, Russia's nuclear cruise and torpedo weapons are, from an arms control standpoint, not exactly deterrent-focused weapons.
—Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, 1 Mar. 2018
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Despite such intuition, and despite the huge investments made, overwhelming evidence indicates that CCTV equipment has, in fact, little deterrent effect.
—IEEE Spectrum, 4 May 2016
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Anyone with an Internet connection and a little curiosity can see that, in the run-up to Putin’s invasion, Biden’s vice president, secretary of state, and national-security adviser all said the chance of sanctions would have a deterrent effect.
—Matthew Continetti, National Review, 26 Mar. 2022
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The panel evaluates Russian President Vladimir Putin's immediate and long-term objectives and discusses how deterrent measures might be enhanced.
—CBS News, 16 Feb. 2022
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However, there are no firm conclusions about the preventive or deterrent effect of international justice.
—Shelley Inglis, The Conversation, 15 Mar. 2022
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Police agencies often announce checkpoints in advance to protect themselves from legal ramifications and because some studies show the practice has a deterrent effect on driving under the influence.
—Jeanne Houck, The Enquirer, 13 Sep. 2020
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In the conventional military sphere, the deterrent effect of military decision would lengthen the time between wars both by diminishing the enemy’s combat capability, which would have to be rebuilt, and by denying the enemy its strategic objective.
—Steven Simon, The New York Review of Books, 16 Jan. 2020
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'deterrent.' 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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