How to Use pathological in a Sentence

pathological

adjective
Definition of pathologicalnext
  • That’s not pathological; that’s just a way for the world to be.
    — David Marchese, New York Times, 10 Dec. 2021
  • For the 40 years after the war, there was this almost pathological fear to speak of the war.
    — Jake Coyle, ajc, 21 Dec. 2021
  • But the truth is that while Trump didn’t foam at the mouth, his performance was still pathological.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 22 Oct. 2020
  • Each one is like a beloved child: unique and the product of a sometimes pathological level of love and care.
    — Kelly Allen, House Beautiful, 8 July 2022
  • All mass killers do not emerge from the same pathological matrix.
    — Phillip Morris, cleveland.com, 4 Mar. 2018
  • My identity was formed and reformed around the needs of those around me and the pathological need to put myself last.
    — Lea Grover, Glamour, 26 Feb. 2020
  • Instead of being praised as a straight-shooter, I was called a gold-digger, a con artist, and a pathological liar.
    — Fox News, 26 Sep. 2018
  • In the interview, Anderson called L.J. a pathological liar, a thief and a bad kid.
    — Molly Parker, ProPublica, 5 June 2024
  • For the next 100 years, these two pathological proteins—known as tau and amyloid—were the focus of research into the causes of the disease.
    — Jason Ulrich, Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2021
  • Any new business founder will have a near-pathological fear of failure.
    — Barnaby Lashbrooke, Forbes, 12 Nov. 2021
  • The whole affair is part of a pathological vendetta begun by the president of the United States.
    — William Cummings, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2018
  • Counterops online campaign to push back and call her out as a pathological liar.
    — Amanda Shendruk, Quartz, 11 Sep. 2019
  • Most people have a pathological instinct to avoid adopting the habits of their parents.
    — Washington Post, 18 June 2021
  • The Net at its most pathological – deranged and anonymous.
    — Joey Anuff, WIRED, 10 Sep. 1997
  • Oliver, the pathological liar Keoghan plays in Saltburn, is the first role to become such a large part of his social narrative.
    — Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 21 Feb. 2024
  • To be innocent of an offense and yet to confess your guilt—not for pathological reasons but purely to get ahead in the world—takes a certain panache.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2023
  • The fans, with a pathological obsession for winning, and the media demand wins.
    — Samindra Kunti, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2021
  • Abnormal clumps of amyloid in the brain are a hallmark pathological sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
    — Stacey Burling, Star Tribune, 8 Oct. 2020
  • The work in the microbiome, in part, led to more recent work on viruses as Afeyan and his team questioned whether there are viruses in our bodies that aren’t pathological.
    — Amy Feldman, Forbes, 15 Nov. 2021
  • This is due in part to some of the basic affinities of cinema as a medium, with its soft spot for fast-talking charmers and pathological con men.
    — Justin Chang Film Critic, Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2021
  • But this could all have to do with the fact that, clearly, Eric has a pathological relationship with his mother.
    — Chris Norris, SPIN, 13 Aug. 2022
  • The line between sane and insane, normal and pathological, has always been where society agrees to draw it.
    — Rebecca A. Seligman, STAT, 8 May 2018
  • But in every film, Ghostface is someone different, many times a pair of people, linked by a pathological love of scary movies.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 14 Jan. 2022
  • Do the Capitals have a pathological issue against the Penguins?
    — Hemal Jhaveri, USA TODAY, 11 May 2017
  • This is not because black people are more broken or more pathological than any other group.
    — Brittney Cooper, Cosmopolitan, 14 July 2017
  • The study acknowledges that nicotine is a drug of abuse and could have severe pathological consequences.
    — Mckenzie Sadeghi, USA TODAY, 3 May 2020
  • Lying as a means of coping with poverty had given way to something more pathological.
    — Seyward Darby, Longreads, 20 July 2022
  • Portman plays Sam, a pathological liar and Zach Braff’s love interest.
    — Ashley Shannon Wu, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2022
  • The subplot that cemented the audience’s near-pathological love of Kim Wexler.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 16 Aug. 2022
  • Many blame evidently pathological antimodernisms that have emerged from places outside the West—especially the Muslim world.
    — Pankaj Mishra, Foreign Affairs, 17 Oct. 2016

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

Last Updated: